Gerald Amirault
| Gerald Amirault | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Gerald A. Amirault March 1, 1954 United States |
| Other names | Tooky |
| Spouse(s) | Patricia Amirault |
| Children | 3 |
| Parent(s) | Violet |
Gerald A. "Tooky" Amirault (born March 1, 1954) is an American convicted in 1986 of child sexual abuse of eight 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 a conspicuous example of day-care sex-abuse hysteria. Dorothy Rabinowitz, a member of the Editorial Board of The Wall Street Journal, asserts that Amirault was railroaded. Rabinowitz 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. He was released on April 30, 2004
The prosecution relied heavily on testimony from young children extracted through long sessions with therapists. Dorothy Rabinowitz, of the Wall Street Journal, wrote that "Other than such testimony, the prosecutors had no shred of physical or other proof that could remotely pass as evidence of abuse". Among the accusations were, as summarized by Rabinowitz from court records, Amirault
had plunged a wide-blade butcher knife into the rectum of a 4-year-old boy, which he then had trouble removing. When a teacher in the school saw him in action with the knife, she asked him what he was doing, and then told him not to do it again, a child said. On this testimony, Gerald was convicted of a rape which had, miraculously, left no mark or other injury.
The Amiraults insist they were victims of the day-care sex-abuse hysteria that swept the US in the 1980s.
In 1995, Judge Robert Barton ordered a new trial for Violet, then 72, and Cheryl, who had been imprisoned eight years. He ordered the women released at once. Barton expressed his contempt for the prosecutors.
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