Outraged Parents Place Ad Meanwhile, Au Pair Woodward Cruises The Mall, Jokes Around
Angry at the celebrity status of Louise Woodward, the teenage au pair ruled responsible for the death of 8-month-old Matthew Eappen, supporters of Sunil and Deborah Eappen, the baby’s parents, have purchased a newspaper advertisement to show their outrage.
Margaret Pothier, a nurse anesthetist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where Sunil Eappen is an anesthesologist, said she collected the $9,100 ad fee from Friends of the Eappens, a Brigham-based group that feels the grieving couple need to be publicly supported.
Meanwhile, Woodward tested her freedom with her parents Thursday. With reporters following, they drove to suburban Peabody, where she spent the afternoon like a typical teenager - shopping at the mall.
Woodward, 19, even joked about her own celebrity while buying Calvin Klein perfume.
“Did you get that?” Woodward asked the clerk. “I don’t want to get arrested for shoplifting.”
On Oct. 30, Woodward was convicted of second-degree murder for allegedly shaking Matthew and striking his head on a hard surface Feb. 4. But defense lawyers maintain that the infant’s skull fracture was weeks old and began to bleed again that day.
On Monday, Middlesex Superior Court Judge Hiller B. Zobel reduced the charge to involuntary manslaughter and sentenced Woodward to time already served. Both the prosecution and the defense plan to appeal.
The quarter-page advertisement, which will run Friday in the Boston Globe, has a photo of the smiling baby next to a picture of his favorite caterpillar toy, and the names of 49 of the Eappen’s friends and co-workers. It also includes a two-paragraph statement condemning both the public’s anger at the couple and the sympathy for Woodward.
“Matthew, the victim, and central focus of this case, has been cast aside in order to introduce the new victim, Louise Woodward, who has been elevated to the status of a folk hero,” according to the ad. “In reducing the sentence to time served, Judge Zobel has trivialized Matthew Eappen’s life and a deadly act of child abuse.”
“The Eappens are feeling terribly disillusioned,” Pothier said. “They found themselves on trial, defending themselves and their 3-year-old son as possible perpetrators. And now they’re being told the person who a judge decided was responsible for their son’s death is getting her hair cut, shopping, drinking champagne, eating chocolate.”
Achamma Eappen, Sunil Eappen’s mother, was also dismayed.
“Nobody in their right sense can believe this girl is walking around,” said Eappen, during a telephone interview from her home in Illinois. “She is a convicted child killer and there are people following her around, watching her shop.”
But Jane Hunt, a Woodward family friend from Marblehead, said Woodward and her family went shopping out of necessity.
“She certainly isn’t living the high life,” said Hunt, a member of the British Charitable Society. “With a storm coming, they were concerned she didn’t have winter clothing.”
Thursday, Woodward’s and her parents left the Harborside Hyatt Hotel in East Boston about 2:30 p.m. for a waiting green Ford Expedition.
“We’re just going to try and enjoy a relaxing day, OK?” her father, Gary Woodward, told reporters.
As the vehicle sped away, reporters - and a TV news helicopter - followed. A half-hour later, Woodward and her parents arrived at the North Shore Mall in Peabody.
Wearing a jacket and a short black skirt, Woodward spent about 3-1/2 hours strolling through the mall. She spent $156 in Filene’s Basement, bought a bracelet at Next, and purchased CDs by the Spice Girls, Jewell and Blues Traveler at Sam Goody music store.