(3 of 3)
If the McMartin children were not robbed of their innocence by sexual abuse, it was stolen from them by a legal system that took more than six years to bring this case to a conclusion. One child witness was four when the abuse allegedly occurred, seven when she first told a social worker about it, eight when she told her story to a grand jury, ten when she told it to a judge, and eleven when she finally told it to the jury that rendered its verdict last Thursday. Perhaps the only thing of value that has come out of this case is the determination to ensure that such a fiasco can never occur again.