BELLEFONTE, Pa. — Matt Sandusky went to the Centre County courthouse on June 11. He took a seat. He was, it seemed to all, a loyal if silent supporter, there in a show of solidarity for his adoptive father.

For more than a week, eight men would testify they had been abused as boys by Jerry ­Sandusky, the former assistant Penn State football coach. They had been boys like Matt — children who had met Sandusky through his charity, Second Mile. These were boys with troubled backgrounds. Boys perhaps looking for a stable parent. Their testimony was gruesome, and it left some of them in tears all over again.