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The
Press
December 12, 1992
Police 'reluctance' seen
A witness in the
Christchurch Civic Childcare Centre hearing said she began to collate
incidents of alleged sexual abuse of children attending the creche after she perceived a reluctance by the police to
investigate.
The witness, whose name was suppressed, said she had written a letter of
complaint to the Christchurch City Council about one of the creche staff, Peter Hugh McGregor Ellis, in November last
year. Ellis was suspended from his job soon after.
Her letter of complaint followed a comment from her son, who had attended the
creche, that he did not like Ellis's "black
penis". She had telephoned the creche manager,
Gaye Jocelyn Davidson, and told her of her son's remarks. Davidson called on
her at home to discuss the situation with a council official, who advised her
to put her complaint in writing.
The witness was giving evidence at a preliminary hearing in the District
Court to decide if Ellis, Davidson, and three other former creche staff, accused of sexually abusing some children
in their care, will be sent for trial.
Ellis, aged 34, faces 45 indecency charges. Davidson,
aged 39, Janice Virginia Buckingham, aged 44, and Marie Keys, aged 44, each
face four charges. Deborah Janet Gillespie, aged 30, faces three charges.
The witness said her son was interviewed three times by the specialist
services unit of the Department of Social Welfare, but had not disclosed any
sexual abuse in those interviews. He was not the subject of any charges
before the court.
The child's mother said she had been very grateful for the speed with which
her complaint had been handled, but became upset at the apparent lack of
concern subsequently shown by creche staff for her
and her child. She had felt isolated and disturbed by that.
She had since laid a complaint against another male worker at a different
pre-school centre in Christchurch
after allegations by her son against him.
The woman said the worker concerned had not been charged as her son had not
disclosed any evidence of sexual abuse during a video-taped interview.
She had made a complaint to police about the worker after questioning her son
following a telephone call from the mother of another child.
Cross-examined by counsel for the four women, Mr
Gerald Nation, the witness said she had acted as an unofficial social worker
to some parents with Children at the civic childcare centre until one was
appointed.
She wanted to help other parents with whatever skills and resources she had.
The witness said she had recommended people to go to for counselling and
other services that might assist them.
She said she had had contact with several other parents with children at the
civic childcare centre, at informal support group meetings and other times.
She had discussed with other parents what their children had been saying
about the creche and collated material on
everything she knew about the allegations of sexual abuse. She passed on the
information to the police at their request.
The witness said she had not followed Social Welfare Depart¬ment
advice against directly questioning children or sharing information with
other parents about what children were alleg¬ing.
She believed that secrecy in the area of child abuse allowed the abuse to
continue. It was better to talk about it.
The witness said from the time her son made comments about Ellis's penis she
felt it was "highly likely" that sexual abuse of children at the creche was widespread, since it would be unusual for just
one child to be abused.
The hearing is expected to last until the end of January.
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