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The Press
December 8, 1992.
‘Children named’ after parents talk
A witness in the Christchurch Civic Childcare Centre
inquiry said her daughter named other children as having been abused after
contact between the parents involved.
The mother of one complainant said before she and her partner spoke to other
parents her daughter had made no mention of the children.
Five former staff of the Christchurch Civic Childcare Centre are accused of
sexually abusing some children in their care. The hearing of depositions, to
decide if they will be sent for trial, is expected to last until the end of
January.
Peter Hugh McGregor Ellis, aged 34, faces 45 indecency charges. The former
manager of the creche, Gave Jocelyn Davidson, aged 39, Janice Virginia
Buckingham, aged 44, and Mane Keys, aged 44, each face four charges Deborah
Janet Gillespie, aged 30, faces three charges.
The witness, whose name is suppressed, said she had ignored advice from the
police for parents not to talk among themselves about what their children had
disclosed.
She said she had found contact with other parents necessary for support and
said the family had been top priority at the time rather than the court
process.
On one occasion her daughter had talked of being taken to a place by Ellis
where there were clowns, tickets, lions and tigers and being put in a cage.
Cross-examined by counsel for the four women defendants, Mr Gerald Nation the
mother said she had taken her daughter to the zoo at New Brighton when she was three. Her
daughter had also been taken to Orana
Park and the Willowbank
Wildlife Reserve, while attending the creche.
At another time her daughter had said she had been taken by Ellis to the
Parkroyal Hotel where she had met his Japanese friends. She said the police
would not catch Ellis's friends because they lived overseas.
Another mother whose children attended the creche between 1988 and 1991, said
her children were frequently reluctant for her to leave when she dropped them
off at the centre, after they moved to the "big end" of the creche
for older children.
They became reluctant and fearful about going to the toilet when they were
out, even at places they were familiar with and were scared when strange men
were in the house. At one stage during their time at the creche they became
abnormally tired and withdrawn and did not want to talk about the creche.
The mother, whose name was suppressed, said both she and her husband were
musical and often played music to the children but between the ages of three
and four their children's attitude towards performing publicly changed
dramatically, to the point where they now could not take part in school plays
because of the Fear and distress it caused them.
They had particular fears of anybody dressed m costume such as stilt walkers
and people dressed in animal costumes.
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