The Boston Herald
Saturday, October 18, 2003
A Boston Herald editorial
Amirault case now closed
No case has been as divisive and troubling as the mass child-abuse case at the Fells Acres day care center in Malden in the 1980s.
The granting of parole for Gerald "Tooky" Amirault, the only member of the accused family not freed in the past decade, should end the turmoil.
The parole decision was inevitable given that the same state board had recommended that Amirault's sentence be commuted. Nonetheless the victims in the case, who have steadfastly stood by their stories over the years, are feeling wounded by it.
They should draw comfort from the fact that, if guilty, Amirault served a lengthy and equitable sentence for his crimes. If he's innocent, though, the pain inflicted on Amirault's children, raised without a father, matches theirs, and no court or legal process can heal it. The plain truth is we will never know what really happened. But we do know that it is time to move on.
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