A former respiratory therapist at a children’s hospital was sentenced to more than 45 years in prison Wednesday for molesting five disabled children and taking pornographic photographs of others.
Families of the victims described the crimes as their worst nightmares.
“I just want you to know it doesn’t matter what you say or how many years you spend in jail — it’s not going to be enough,” parent Lillian Godfrey told Wayne Albert Bleyle at his sentencing hearing. “I don’t think you have a soul. You’re just an empty human shell.”
Bleyle, 55, told investigators he molested as many as half the children he treated in his 10 years working in the convalescent ward at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego.
He did not turn to look as a succession of weeping parents and family members spoke from the public gallery just behind him. Instead, he stared straight ahead or cast his eyes down at the table in front of him.