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Gerald A. "Tooky" Amirault is an American convicted in 1986 of child sexual abuse of eight children at the Fells Acres Day School 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. Amirault was released from prison on parole on April 30, 2004.
The McMartin preschool trial was a day care sexual abuse case in the 1980s, prosecuted by the Los Angeles District Attorney, Ira Reiner. Members of the McMartin family, who operated a preschool in Manhattan Beach, California, were charged with hundreds of acts of sexual abuse of children in their care. Accusations were made in 1983, with arrests and the pretrial investigation taking place from 1984 to 1987 and trials running from 1987 to 1990. The case lasted seven years but resulted in no convictions, and all charges were dropped in 1990. By the case's end, it had become the longest and most expensive series of criminal trials in American history. The case was part of day-care sex-abuse hysteria, a moral panic over alleged Satanic ritual abuse in the 1980s and early 1990s.
The Kern County child abuse cases started the day care sexual abuse hysteria of the 1980s in Kern County, California. The cases involved allegations of satanic ritual abuse by a sex ring against as many as 60 children who testified they had been abused. At least 36 people were convicted and most of them spent years in prison. Thirty-four convictions were overturned on appeal. The district attorney responsible for the convictions was Ed Jagels, who was sued by at least one of those whose conviction was overturned, and who remained in office until 2009. Two of the convicted individuals were unable to prove their innocence because they died in prison.
Wee Care Nursery School, located in Maplewood, New Jersey, was the subject of a day care child abuse case that was tried during the 1980s. Although Margaret Kelly Michaels was prosecuted and convicted, the decision was reversed after she spent five years in prison. An appellate court ruled that several features of the original trial had produced an unjust ruling and the conviction was reversed. The case was studied by several psychologists who were concerned about the interrogation methods used and the quality of the children's testimony in the case. This resulted in research concerning the topic of children's memory and suggestibility, resulting in new recommendations for performing interviews with child victims and witnesses.
The Fells Acres day care sexual abuse trial took place in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts following charges initially lodged in the mid-1980s against family members who operated a day care center, Fells Acres Day School, in Malden, Massachusetts. The facility had been opened in 1966 by Violet Amirault (1923–1997). She and her two children—son Gerald Amirault and daughter Cheryl Amirault LeFave —were tried for sexually abusing children at their facility. Gerald was tried in 1986 while his sister and mother were tried in 1987. All three were convicted and sentenced to prison. The Amiraults deny the charges, which supporters regard as a conspicuous example of day-care sex-abuse hysteria.
Day-care sex-abuse hysteria was a moral panic that occurred primarily during the 1980s and early 1990s, and featured charges against day-care providers accused of committing several forms of child abuse, including Satanic ritual abuse. The collective cases are often considered a part of the Satanic panic. A 1982 case in Kern County, California, United States, first publicized the issue of day-care sexual abuse, and the issue figured prominently in news coverage for almost a decade. The Kern County case was followed by cases elsewhere in the United States, as well as Canada, New Zealand, Brazil, and various European countries.
Peter Hugh McGregor Ellis was a New Zealand childcare worker who was wrongfully convicted of child sexual abuse. He was at the centre of one of the country's most enduring judicial controversies, after being found guilty in June 1993 in the High Court on 16 counts of sexual offences involving children in his care at the Christchurch Civic Creche and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment. He maintained his innocence until his death 26 years later and was supported by many New Zealanders in his attempts to overturn his convictions, although others believed he was guilty. Concerns about the reliability of the convictions centred on far-fetched stories told by many of the children and the interview techniques used to obtain their testimony.
The Wenatchee child abuse prosecutions in Wenatchee, Washington, US, of 1994 and 1995, were the last "large scale Multi-Victim / Multi-Offender case" during the hysteria over child molestation in the 1980s and early 1990s. Many poor and intellectually disabled suspects pled guilty, while those who hired private lawyers were acquitted. Eventually all those accused in these cases were released, and the authorities paid damages to some of those originally accused.
The Archdiocese of Boston sex abuse scandal was part of a series of Catholic Church sexual abuse cases in the United States that revealed widespread crimes in the American Catholic Church. In early 2002, TheBoston Globe published results of an investigation that led to the criminal prosecutions of five Roman Catholic priests and thrust the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy into the national spotlight. Another accused priest who was involved in the Spotlight scandal also pleaded guilty. The Globe's coverage encouraged other victims to come forward with allegations of abuse, resulting in numerous lawsuits and 249 criminal cases.
The sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, U.S., is a significant episode in the series of Catholic sex abuse cases in the United States, Ireland and elsewhere. The Philadelphia abuses were substantially revealed through a grand jury investigation in 2005. In early 2011, a new grand jury reported extensive new charges of abusive priests active in the archdiocese. In 2012, a guilty plea by priest Edward Avery and the related trial and conviction of William Lynn and mistrial on charges against James J. Brennan followed from the grand jury's investigations. In 2013, Charles Engelhardt and teacher Bernard Shero were tried, convicted and sentenced to prison. Lynn was the first official to be convicted in the United States of covering up abuses by other priests in his charge and other senior church officials have been extensively criticized for their management of the issue in the archdiocese.
The Martensville satanic sex scandal, also known as the Martensville Nightmare occurred in Martensville, Saskatchewan, Canada. There were two similar events around the same time where an allegation of child sex abuse escalated into claims of satanic ritual abuse. The more widely known of the two is the Martensville Daycare Scandal, and the second but earlier story is of the Foster Parent Scandal in nearby Saskatoon.
Catholic sexual abuse cases in Australia, like Catholic Church sexual abuse cases elsewhere, have involved convictions, trials and ongoing investigations into allegations of sex crimes committed by Catholic priests, members of religious orders and other personnel which have come to light in recent decades, along with the growing awareness of sexual abuse within other religious and secular institutions.
The Oak Hill satanic ritual abuse trial occurred in Oak Hill, Austin, Texas, in 1991 when Fran Keller and her husband Dan, proprietors of a small day care, were accused of repeatedly and sadistically abusing several children.
The Catholic sexual abuse scandal in Europe has affected several dioceses in European nations. This article summarises reported cases of sexual abuse perpetrated by clergy and representatives of the Catholic Church by country and diocese.
The Country Walk case is a 1985 child sex abuse case which occurred in Florida and was described as a "Multi-Victim, Multi-Offender" case. Francisco Fuster-Escalona, known as Frank Fuster, was convicted on multiple charges and sentenced to a minimum of 165 years behind bars, while his wife Illiana served three years. Appeals courts at the state and federal level have consistently ruled against Frank Fuster.
Bernard F. Baran Jr. was an American day care employee wrongfully convicted in the day-care sex-abuse hysteria of the 1980s and 1990s that was spawned by the McMartin preschool trial.
Frank Beck was an English convicted child sex offender. He was employed by the Leicestershire County Council as the officer-in-charge of several children's homes in Leicestershire, between 1973 and 1986. Though holding only a 'middle management' grade within the hierarchy of Leicestershire Social Services, Beck quickly established an esteemed reputation among his professional peers as an innovative, dynamic and extraordinarily effective practitioner in dealing with the emotional and behavioural complexities of troubled young people placed in his charge. Beck was later at the centre of Britain's biggest investigation into institutional child abuse, between 1989 and 1991.
This is a list of notable overturned convictions in Canada.
The response of the Haredi Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York City, to allegations of sexual abuse against its spiritual leaders has drawn scrutiny from inside and outside the Jewish community. When teachers, rabbis, and other leaders have been accused of sexual abuse, authorities in the Haredi community have often failed to report offenses to Brooklyn police, intimidated witnesses, and encouraged shunning against victims and those members of the community who speak out against cases of abuse, although work has been done within Jewish communities to begin to address the issue of sexual abuse.
Pell v The Queen was a High Court of Australia decision that overturned the conviction of Cardinal George Pell for sexual offences against a child. On 22 June 2017, Victoria Police announced Pell's arrest for historical sexual assault charges on two choirboys at St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne. The allegations stemmed from Pell's time spent as Archbishop of Melbourne, and pertained to two anonymous victims referred to throughout the court process as victim A and victim B. B died before any allegation was reported to police. Pell was tried twice in the County Court of Victoria.
References
- 1 2 Ceci, SJ; Bruck M (1996). Jeopardy in the courtroom . American Psychological Association. pp. 9–11. ISBN 1-55798-282-1.
- ↑ "Day-Care Owner Is Convicted of Child Molesting". The New York Times . Associated Press. 1992-04-23. Retrieved 2007-10-24.
- ↑ Smothers, R (August 19, 1991). "Child-Abuse Case Is Ordeal for a Town". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
- 1 2 3 4 Rosenfeld, M. (April 23, 1992). "Child Abuse Conviction in Day Care Case; N.C. Man Was Subject of Sympathetic Documentary". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 2, 2012. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
- ↑ Smothers, R. (March 24, 1992). "Closing Arguments in Child-Abuse Trial". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
- 1 2 3 4 Mayfield, M. (April 23, 1992). "Man convicted in N.C. child sex abuse case". USA Today. Retrieved 2007-12-22.[ dead link ]
- ↑ Twiddy, Anna (2016). "The Little Rascals Case: A Case for Regulating Children's Testimony". People, Ideas and Things. Archived from the original on 2020-09-24. Retrieved 2019-11-26.
- ↑ Tucker, Ken (July 16, 1993). "Innocence lost: the verdict". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
- ↑ "The Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards". Columbia University School of Journalism. Archived from the original on 2017-12-22. Retrieved 2018-09-01.