Former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) defended his pardon of a man convicted of raping a 9-year-old, claiming there was no physical evidence of abuse.
During his radio interview with talk show host Terry Meiners on Thursday, Meiners asked Bevin, who has nine children, how he could pardon convicted child rapist Micah Schoettle.
“There was zero evidence,” Bevin told Meiners, The Courier-Journal reports.
“Both their hymens were intact,” he added. “This is perhaps more specific than people would want, but trust me. If you have been repeatedly sexually violated as a small child by an adult, there are going to be repercussions of that physically and medically.”
“Rape is not proved by hymen penetration,” Kentucky’s former chief medical examiner Dr. George Nichols told the paper. “Rape is proved by phallic penetration … where the vaginal lips meet the outer surface of the vagina.”
A survey from Forensic Science International, a peer-reviewed journal, shows that only 2.1% of child rape victims examined had visible lesions on the hymen.
According to the Journal, Schoettle, 41, was convicted of rape, sodomy and other sexual crimes and was sentenced to 23 years in 2018.