By Paul Langner, Globe Staff, 08/22/1986

AMBRIDGE -- Gerald (Tooky) Amirault, proclaiming his innocence to the last, was sentenced to 30 to 40 years in the Cedar Junction state prison in Walpole for raping and indecently assaulting nine children who attended the Fells Acres Day School in Malden.

The sentence was imposed after a tense two-hour hearing during which parents of the nine children and friends and family of Amirault made tear- choked pleas to Judge Elizabeth Dolan for severity or leniency, respectively. Ten additional court officers, and the regular four, faced the gallery where every seat was filled. They had orders from Dolan to remove anyone who spoke while families of the victims and members of Amirault's party addressed the court.

Last to address the court was Amirault, who on July 19, was convicted of eight charges of rape and seven of indecent assault and battery. The trial lasted 12 weeks and the jury deliberated 64 1/2 hours over 12 days before returning the guilty verdicts on all charges.

"I am not a child molester," Amirault told the court. "I never raised my voice to a child at Fells Acres, let alone do the hideous crimes I've been convicted of."

He burst into tears when he addressed the parents of the children sitting in the courtroom. "I never in my life harmed your children. I wish I could tell them how to deal with their hurt if I had done it. But it is not true."

The nine children testified that Amirault, 32, the cook, driver, and handyman at the day-care center owned by his mother, had dressed as a clown, raped them, made them engage in oral sex, and had them play an obscene game with him.

Eight of the children said Amirault and his mother had threatened them, saying if they told anyone their parents would die or would not love them anymore.

Amirault's mother, Violet, 61, and his sister, Cheryl Amirault LeFave, 28, have been indicted for rape and indecent assault. Their cases are scheduled for a conference Sept. 17.

Amirault could have gotten eight life sentences and seven 10-year sentences. Dolan imposed 30-to-40-year terms on all rape convictions and 8-to- 10-year terms on the indecent assaults. All are to run concurrently.

Amirault will be eligible for parole in 20 years.

Julian Balliro and Frank Mondano, Amirault's attorneys, said they would ask a single justice of the Appeals Court today to stay execution of the sentence, which prosecutors say is the harshest yet imposed for such a crime.

Assistant District Attorney Laurence Hardoon, who headed the prosecution team, asked the judge to impose two consecutive life sentences, which would have meant Amirault would not have been eligible for parole for 30 years.

In seeking the more severe sentence, Hardoon said that Amirault had shown no remorse, had "done nothing to mitigate the hurt he caused the children and parents," and had a history of drug and alcohol abuse.

Hardoon urged Dolan "in view of the young age of the victims, that the defendant's position of showing no remorse should be viewed as nothing less than an outrage."

He added the case was being watched by prosecutors, police, educators and others. "The message needs to be as clear, strong and unequivocal as the jury verdict in this case," Hardoon said.

However, in sentencing Amirault, Dolan said, "It is not my role to send a message. The sentence will be based solely on the 15 offenses against the nine victims."

Hardoon said later he was satisfied with the verdict, as did District Attorney L. Scott Harshbarger and Patricia Bernstein who had also urged Dolan to be severe.

Bernstein, who had been on the case since Amirault was arrested Sept. 5, 1984, said she had witnessed the distress of the parents for nearly two years. "We have been witnesses to a story marked for its perversion and lack of compassion," she said.

Most of the parents said they were satisfied with the sentence. Two mothers said they were not, one saying that no sentence could make up for what her child had suffered.

Amirault's wife, Patricia, who made a tearful plea to Dolan, said later that "Any sentence for an innocent man is unjust."

The parents of eight children addressed Dolan and told of their children's nightmares, of withdrawals, of cowering on their beds, of having to relocate at great cost, and of losing their children's easy affection and unaffected companionship.

One mother, reading a prepared statement, reproached herself because "I continued to send her to Fells Acres even when she cried and begged me not to."

This mother asked Dolan to give Amirault the maximum penalty. "After all," she said, "he sentenced my daughter to a life in prison, a prison locked within her, without a fair trial."

Amirault's supporters, among them his father- and mother-in-law, his wife, a 10-year-old boy, and an uncle, all said they believed he was innocent and would be vindicated in appeals.

His uncle, Arthur Harrington, compared Amirault to Captain Alfred Dreyfus, whose conviction on trumped up espionage charges set end-of-the-century France into turmoil before his innocence was proven.

Like all those speaking in behalf of Amirault, Harrington closed his statement with "We love you, Tooky." The 10-year-old boy, a former pupil at Fells Acres, said it too, adding "We want you back where you belong." Then he burst into tears.

Amirault by then was sobbing almost continuously. He had kept his face immobile until his mother-in-law, Mary McGonagle, said "We love you, Tooky."

The judge received 140 letters urging leniency and attesting to the defendant's character, she said.

Patricia Amirault told the judge, "If I thought he were guilty, I would leave him in a minute." She added, "When you sentence my husband, you sentence me, my children, my family." The Amiraults have two young daughters and an infant son.

But it was Amirault who made the day's most emotional charge. "Before God, I am an innocent man," he said as he closed his brief appeal. "Those people over there (pointing to his family and friends) are as much victims, have suffered as much, as those over there (pointing to the parents of the victims). We all suffer, and you (pointing to Hardoon), you walk away. You caused it all."