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Report: Aaron Hernandez was sexually molested as a child

Former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was sexually abused as a child, according to a new Boston Globe report. (Getty Images)
Former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was sexually abused as a child, according to a new Boston Globe report. (Getty Images)

Former New England Patriots tight end and convicted murderer Aaron Hernandez was “sexually molested as a young boy,” an investigative report from The Boston Globe revealed on Saturday.

The Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team — which conducted interviews with family, friends, former teammates and obtained recordings of nearly 300 phone calls Hernandez made from prison — released the first part of its six-part series on Hernandez on Saturday.

The story covers a lot of ground, including Hernandez’s childhood and home life, drug use and his sexuality.

Hernandez — who played for the Patriots from 2010-2012 — committed suicide while in prison in Massachusetts in 2017. His attorney suggested that chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, was to blame for his suicide. Researchers found that Aaron had one of the most advanced cases of CTE found in a player as young as him (27 years old).

He was serving a life sentence without possibility of parole for the murder of Odin Lloyd in 2013. His death came just five days after being found not guilty of a 2012 double homicide.

Hernandez ‘sexually molested as a young boy’

Jonathan Hernandez, Aaron’s only sibling, told the Globe that his brother had revealed to him that he had been sexually molested as a young boy. One of Aaron’s lawyers also confirmed that he had spoken about sexual abuse as a child.

Neither Jonathan or his lawyer would identify who abused Aaron, and declined to say more.

Abuse at home

Jonathan told the Globe that both he and his brother “lived in constant fear of their father’s beatings” while growing up in Bristol, Connecticut. One time, Jonathan recalled he threatened to call the police for help after one of the beatings.

That, he said, just made it worse.

“I picked up the phone once to call, to seek help,” Jonathan told the Globe. “And his response was, ‘Call them.’ And he handed me the phone, and he said, ‘I’m going to beat you even harder, you and your brother, and they’re going to have to pull me off of you when they knock down the door.’”

Their father, Dennis, died during Aaron’s junior year of high school.

Early drug use

Dennis SanSouice, one of Aaron’s high school teammates, told the Globe that they smoked “a lot of marijuana — before school, practices, and after games.”

He recalled one instance where he and Aaron were walking near the high school on the first day of their junior year when they “were baked.”

Aaron’s relationship with SanSouice

SanSouice revealed to the Globe about a “now-and-then sexual relationship” he had with Aaron throughout middle and high school.

“Me and him were very much into trying to hide what we were doing,” SanSouice told the Globe. “We didn’t want people to know.”

While they were hiding their relationship from the world, Aaron and SanSouice knew they had to keep it a secret from Aaron’s father.

Dennis, according to the report, “had concerns that Aaron, as a boy, had a feminine way about him.”

Their home life was “deeply homophobic,” Jonathan said.

“‘F—–‘ was used all the time in our house,” Jonathan told the Globe. “All the time. Standing. Talking. Acting. Looking. It was the furthest thing my father wanted you to even look like in our household. This was not acceptable to him.”

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