(CBS) LOS ANGELES A prominent geneticist who has been hailed as the "father of gene therapy" was convicted Wednesday for molesting a young girl whose mother worked with him at USC.
William French Anderson, 69, was convicted of one count of continuous sexual abuse with a child under 14 and three counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child. Anderson, who was arrested in July 2004, was the head of the USC Gene Therapy Laboratories.
Prosecutors said Anderson molested the girl, now 19, over a five-year period beginning when she was just nine or 10 years old. They met after the girl's family moved to South Pasadena from China and her mother began working for Anderson at the lab.
Crucial to the case was a recorded conversation between the victim and Anderson, who could be heard telling her, "I just did it, just something in me was just evil."
Another one bites the dust...
