Rathnam pleaded guilty to 28 charges of child rape and sexual abuse; he will spend between 15 and 30 years in prison and undergo an additional ten years of probation
On 8 May 2025, Odin Rathnam pleaded guilty to 28 charges of child rape and sexual abuse, which occurred over eleven years from 2008 and 2019 in multiple locations in Pennsylvania.
Rathnam, a violinist and former concertmaster, was offered a plea deal in March 2025 to avoid a life sentence. By accepting the deal, Rathnam will spend between 15 and 30 years imprisoned in a State Correctional Facility and must undergo an additional ten years of probation supervision consecutive to his prison sentence.
Rathnam will be registered as a sex offender under the US Megan’s Law and will be required to undergo an assessment by the Sexual Offender’s Assessment Board to determine if he meets the criteria to be classified as a sexually violent predator.
The victim reported the abuse in May 2024. Rathnam was arrested at his home in Ohio in July 2024 and was charged with one count of child rape resulting in serious bodily injury, seven more counts of child rape, aggravated indecent assault, unlawful contact with a minor, and more, for a total of 21 felony and seven misdemeanour counts.
The crimes began when the victim was six years old and continued until she was 17. She claimed that she suffered injuries from the sexual attacks that required ongoing medical attention.
According to the Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office report on the case, Rathnam groomed his victim over the period, creating systematic division between the victim and her mother. The report says that he ’made the victim believe that she shared a special relationship with him and that her mother would not understand. He isolated the victim from her mother and convinced the victim that her mother was the reason for her medical problems. He told the victim inappropriate stories about her mother and shared that he cared for the victim more than her mother did.’
The report also stated that he used his status and reputation within the local music community ‘to underscore the trustworthiness he claimed to possess’.
Rathnam served as concertmaster of the Harrisburg Symphony from 1991 to 2012. His employment at Cleveland State University was terminated following his arrest last year.
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