‘What was done to me, I hope is done to you’: Victim of Odin Rathnam shares her story with abc27

Those were the words directed to world-renowned violinist and former Harrisburg Symphony Concertmaster Odin Rathnam in a Dauphin County Courtroom last month. A few weeks later, they were said again—this time, during an interview with abc27.

The person who said those words is the victim of Odin Rathnam, who was sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison for child sexual abuse. He faced 28 counts and pleaded “no contest” to child rape, and guilty to numerous other sexual assault charges.

“He’s taken a lot from me,” the victim, who asked not to be identified, said. “My innocence as a child, he’s taken it away from me.”

abc27 also sat down with the victim’s mother, who also asked not to be identified.

“There was a reason he chose to start at the age he started at,” the mother said.

The abuse, the court found, started when the victim was six years old.

“I remember I was asleep in my bed, and I remember waking up to him on top of me and being in intense, excruciating pain,” the victim said. “I remember going to the bathroom afterwards and just seeing blood. My sister had her menstrual cycle and I would try to hide it with pads just because I didn’t know what to do.”

According to the victim and court records, the abuse would happen multiple times a week.

“And it would happen when he would come home late at night or when he would drink to excess, which happened pretty much nightly,” the victim said, adding that it often took place when her mother was not home.

“My mom was in school. She was working night shifts and was gone most of the time,” she said. “She had no idea what was happening.”

After about seven years of marriage, the victim’s mother divorced Rathnam. Rathnam moved out, but the abuse continued when she and her brother visited him in Fort Hunter.

“My brother had a pretty strong relationship with him,” the victim said. “I didn’t want to hinder that relationship with my brother and him, so I kept that separate.”

That was until May 2024, when, states away, she came forward and told her mother about the abuse.

“After she told me, I immediately took off work and went down to North Carolina the very next day,” the mother said through tears. “And as she’s telling me what happened, I can literally see her mind go somewhere else. Like she’s flashing back.”

The details are too graphic to include in this story or on-air.

Both the victim and her mother went to the police, who recorded a phone call with Rathnam that ultimately helped lead to his conviction. He was unaware he was being recorded, and begged the victim not to tell authorities about what happened.

“I don’t know what to tell you, but it will be the end of everything for me,” Rathnam said in the call.

“It’s been hard mentally more than anything,” the victim said.

Today, she struggles both mentally and physically. The abuse, she testified, was so bad that she needed surgery. She said she still needs more.

What makes her story even just a little bit easier, she said, is knowing she got justice.,

“At the end of the day, he has to live with that,” she said. “He has to live with what he did to me.”

She does, too, but now wants to help other survivors.

“I just hope this helps someone who is struggling with coming out,” she said.