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The Christchurch Civic
Creche Case |
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Convicted creche worker Peter Ellis will continue
serving his 10-year jail sentence after the Court of Appeal yesterday ruled
that 13 of his 16 convictions should stand. In a judgment delivered by Sir Maurice Casey, the
court said it could find no grounds on which to overturn the 13 verdicts in
respect of six complainants involved in Ellis's High Court trial last year. The court quashed three convictions relating to a
seventh child, who retracted her allegations against Ellis during the appeal
process this year. The quashing of the three charges did not affect the
sentence. "We are by no means satisfied that she did lie
at the interviews, although she may now genuinely think she did. With such
doubts, we think it would be unsafe to let the convictions on the counts
involving her stand," the court said. The judges endorsed the verdicts, saying they
believed the jury was fully justified in its conclusion that charges against
Ellis had been established beyond reasonable doubt. Ellis has served all of the 14 months of his
sentence in one of 14 maximum security cells in Paparua Prison. The jusges referred to "particularly telling
pieces of evidence" citing explicit sexual knowledge possessed by some
of the children. The accused had an unusual interest in a specific sexual
practice similar to some of the offences alleged. "Great risks of detection may have been run,
but that is not uncommon in cases of indulgence in a perversion…. The claims
that the evidence of the children was contaminated by interviewing techniques,
parental hysteria, or the like lack any solid basis." The court said. Arguments about the design of the creche toilets
amking abuse there impossible and Ellis's lack of opportunity had not persuaded
the court the abuse could not have happened, it said. Social Welfare social workers who interviewed the
children had been professional and neutral, and "we do not accept the
submission they were working under an agenda with the object of obtaining disclosure
of abuse in the belief that it had occurred", the judgment said. The jury had been able to assess the spontaneity
and genuineness of the child's reactions and disclosures, and the effect of
the interviewer's attitude and questioning, the court said. The jury had ample opportunity to assess the whole
interviewing process, and where bizarre or seemingly improbable accounts of
abuse formed the subject of charges, Ellis was acquitted. The court could not be justified in setting aside
convictions where there were concerns about undue parental influence when the
jury had had the advantage of "seeing and hearing the witnesses",
the court said. None of trial judge Justice Williamson's rulings
during the case had resulted in any injustice to Ellis. |
