McKayla Maroney, mother request maximum sentence for Larry Nassar

Olympic gold medalist McKayla Maroney and her loved ones are demanding the maximum sentence for former USA Gymnastics Dr. Larry Nassar, who she says sexually abused her for years.

The gymnast was originally slated to read a victim-impact statement alongside her mother in federal court Thursday, but they will instead deliver their testimony through written letters, which have been obtained by ESPN.com.

“He abused my trust, abused my body and left scars on my psyche that may never heal,” Maroney wrote in her letter to the court. “Larry Nassar deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison.”

Her mother echoed the sentiment: “She was transformed from a bubbly positive, loving world class athlete into a young adult who was deeply depressed, at times suicidal. At times, I was unsure whether I would open her bedroom door and find her dead.”

The two-time Olympic medalist first came forward amid the #MeToo movement with her allegations against Nassar, who plead guilty over the summer to child porn charges and is separately facing a slew of other sexual assault charges. She said the former Michigan State University doctor started abusing her when she was only 13 years old under the guise of a medical treatment, which continued throughout the rest of her time with the sport.

“It happened in London before my team and I won the gold medal, and it happened before I won my silver medal,” Maroney wrote.

Her mother, Erin Maroney, in her letter to the court recalled hearing from her daughter about another incident of abuse she says occurred during the world championships in Tokyo.

“I ... learned a few weeks ago from my daughter that at the world championships in Tokyo, [Nassar] drugged her, made her lay nude on a treatment table, straddled her and digitally penetrated her while rubbing his erect penis against her,” she wrote in the letter obtained by ESPN. “She was 15 years old. She said to me, ‘Mom I thought I was going to die.’

“I cannot tell you the anguish her Dad and I feel and the responsibility we feel for not being aware of this or being able to stop it.”

Maroney and her mother, vocal critics of the USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic Committee, also slammed rules that bar parents from the team training camps.

Erin Maroney wrote that she and her husband “were not allowed to stay with McKayla” while the team traveled and “sometimes we were not even in the same hotel.”

She continued: “My husband once questioned the isolations of the girls during international travel. He was assured by [former USA Gymnastics president] Steve Penny that the girls were safe as they would be protected by U.S. Marines from U.S. Embassies if there was any security issue. We now know that was a lie.”

Penny resigned in March amid backlash and criticism over the way he handled the abuse scandal.

“A simple fact is this. If Michigan State University, USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic Committee had paid attention to any of the red flags in Larry Nassar’s behavior, I would have never met him, I never would have been ‘treated’ by him and I never would have been abused by him,” Maroney wrote in her letter.

Nassar in July pleaded guilty in federal court in western Michigan after investigators found more than 37,000 images of child porn on his electronic devices. He also recently pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting three girls at Lansing-area gymnastics club, again under the guise of treatment.

Another 100 women are suing him, with Olympians Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas among those who have come forward with allegations against the doctor.