Gerald Amirault

Gerald A. "Tooky" Amirault (born March 1, 1954) was convicted in 1986 of molesting and raping eight 3 and 4 year-old children at the Fells Acres Day Care Center in Malden, Massachusetts, run by his family. He and his family deny the charges, which supporters regard as an example of day care sex abuse hysteria.

He and his wife Patricia, a schoolteacher whom he married in 1977, have three children: Gerrilyn, Katie, and P.J.

Accusations

Testimony in the cases included stories of Amirault dressed as a clown and raping children with knives, and ritual slaughter of animals. It relied partially on testimony from young children from sessions with therapists. The Amiraults insist they were victims of the day care sex abuse hysteria that swept the US in the 1980s.

The trial

Testimony from the trial shows that

all nine children testified in a broadly consistent way...The children testified to numerous instances of sexual abuse. Some of the children testified that they were photographed during this abuse, describing a big camera with wires, a red button, and pictures which came out of the camera. The children testified that the defendant threatened them and told them that their families would be harmed if they told anyone about the abuse....The Commonwealth also presented a pediatric gynecologist and pediatrician who examined five of the girls who testified...She made findings consistent with abuse in four of the girls.” [ cite news| title = Commonweath v. Amirault, Middlesex|work = 424 Mass. 618
url = http://abusearticles.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/common-vs-amirault-424-mass-618-page-624.jpg| format=scanned reprint ] [cite news| title =Commonweath v. Amirault, Middlesex |work = 424 Mass. 618
url = http://abusearticles.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/common-vs-amirault-424-mass-618-page-625.jpg| format=scanned reprint] [cite news| title =Commonweath v. Amirault|work = 424 Mass. 618 |url = http://abusearticles.wordpress.com/category/commonwealth-vs-amirault/ | format=scanned reprints]

Hysteria

Many believe Amirault was railroaded, including writer Dorothy Rabinowitz, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2001, partly for her coverage of the case. The case was also the major topic of her book about miscarriages of justice, "No Crueler Tyrannies" (ISBN 0743228340). However, the chief prosecutor of both of the Amirault cases maintained that “the children testified to being photographed and molested by acts that included penetration by objects ... the implication ... that the children's allegations of abuse were tainted by improper interviewing is groundless and not true." [cite news | last = Hardoon | first = Larry | publisher=Wall Street Journal| title = Letters to the Editor: The Real Darkness Is Child Abuse | url = http://web.archive.org/web/20010719201703/http://www.vocal-nasvo.org/hardoon.htm |format = archived reprint| quote = As the chief prosecutor of both of the Amirault cases I am writing to prevent the public from being misled into believing that an injustice occurred as Dorothy Rabinowitz alleges in her Jan. 30 editorial-page piece 'A Darkness in Massachusetts.'| date= 02/24/95]

Victims’ statements to the media

In 2001, the victims went public and revealed "their pain." [cite news | last = Gelzinis | first = Peter | title = Amirault's accusers reveal their faces, and their pain | format = archive | publisher = Boston Herald | url = http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/bostonherald/access/77139259.html?dids=77139259:77139259&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Aug+7%2C+2001&author=Peter+Gelzinis&pub=Boston+Herald&edition=&startpage=002&desc=Amirault%27s+accusers+reveal+their+faces%2C+and+their+pain | date = August 7, 2001] A victim stated "So many times....hovered over me, touched me and hurt me and committed many disgusting acts of abuse." [cite news | last = Miller | first = Leslie | title = Mass. Victims Fight Commutation Plea | url = http://web.archive.org/web/20010807011330/http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010802/us/preschool_abuse_3.html | format = archived reprint | publisher = Associated Press | date = August 2, 2001]

Parole refused

In 2002, then-Acting Governor of Massachusetts Jane Swift refused to commute Amirault's sentence, despite a unanimous vote in favor of his release by the state's parole board. This was during her political campaign to remain in office.

Release

He was released from the Bay State Correctional Center on Friday, April 30, 2004, 18 years after his conviction. His sister and mother, Cheryl Amirault LeFave and Violet Amirault, were convicted of related charges in a separate trial, and both released from prison in 1995.

References

ee also

*Moral panic
*Child sexual abuse

External links

* [http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020318/pollitt "Justice, Not So Swift"] -- Article by Katha Pollitt on Swift's refusal to commute Amirault's sentence
* [http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=12609 "Boston Herald" article] on his release, 4/30/2004.
* [http://www.opinionjournal.com/search/exec/htsearch.cgi?words=amirault&db=db&where=oj Wall Street Journal articles on Amirault case]