After four decades of sexually abusing children, Wesley A. Cheney will spend the rest of his life in prison.
On Friday afternoon, Chelan County Superior Court Judge Travis Brandt’s courtroom was full of Cheney’s victims and their loved ones as he was sentenced to 59.5 years in prison.
Some of them spoke before the sentence was handed down.
“This man deserves no type of freedom,” one victim told the court. “He tainted the one pure soul that I owned.”
In all, five women spoke before Cheney was sentenced. They told stories of trauma, and how what he did to them affected their lives. Nightmares, memory loss, addiction issues, an inability to connect with others, financial instability, homelessness and a deep-seated mistrust of men – those were just some of the issues his victims reported having because of the repeated abuse.
More than one of them called Cheney a “monster,” and more than one of them spoke directly to him.
“You have stolen the innocence from my daughter. The sparkle from her eyes,” a mother of one victim said. “She diced her body up just to feel something. She showered over and over just to feel clean. Wes, you were and are the pits of hell.”
The next victim who spoke is young, still a minor, but she spoke with a power and fury everyone in the room could feel.
She asked Cheney how he could look at the little girl that she was and feel sexually attracted to that. At a time when she was supposed to be playing with dolls and dressing up as princesses, she was abused by a man she trusted and loved.
“I often think of the childhood I didn’t have because of you,” she said. “I can still feel your disgusting hands on me. I crawl in my own skin. I still remember what you said, that it was ‘Our little secret.’ Well news flash, Wesley, your secret is out.”
After his victims spoke, Judge Brandt gave Wesley the opportunity to speak as well. With effort, the 76-year-old rose and turned to speak to the crowd of people who had come to see him sentenced.
