LOS ANGELES, CA (CNS) -- A prominent geneticist convicted last year of molesting a girl he mentored and to whom he taught karate in his San Marino home was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
William French Anderson, 70, who has been hailed as ''the father of gene therapy,'' was convicted July 19 of one count of continuous sexual abuse with a child under 14 and three counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child.
Anderson sexually abused the victim, now an adult who testified during the monthlong trial, over several years, beginning when she was about 9 or 10.
They met after the girl's family moved to South Pasadena from China and her mother began working for Anderson at his lab, USC Gene Therapy Laboratories. Anderson resigned from USC in September.
According to the victim, the abuse began when Anderson inappropriately touched her private parts as she was hanging from a punching bag. He later performed ''medical exams'' on the girl when she was naked, and he would thrust on top of her as she lay down, reading a comic book.
''It was not just a mentor/mentee relationship, not just a father/daughter relationship...there was the secret dirty side to that relationship,'' said Deputy District Attorney Cathryn Brougham during opening statements in Anderson's trial in June.
The attorney defending Anderson claimed the girl's mother was trying to extort Anderson by alleging he abused her when, in fact, Anderson was guilty only of pressuring the child to do well in school.
''They are going to claim this not about a lawsuit. What did she need to hire a giant international law firm for?'' attorney Barry Tarlow asked during his opening statements.
In e-mails and a tape-recorded conversation outside the South Pasadena Public Library played for jurors, the girl angrily confronts Anderson about the sexual abuse.
In the encounter outside the library, Anderson tells the girl, ''I just did it, just something in me was just evil.''
Asked about his response in court, Anderson said he thought she was referring to the emotional abuse he'd inflicted on her.
''Pressuring her, causing her to crash, ruining her life, that was evil,'' he said. ''If you cause somebody to crash, flunk out, that's just evil. When I realized she was falsely accusing me of sexual abuse, then I said whatever I had to say to get out of there.''
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael E. Pastor ordered Anderson, who has been in custody since his July 19 conviction, to undergo a 90-day diagnostic evaluation prior to sentencing.
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