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The Press
March 31, 1995
Inquiry needed
Editorial
An inquiry into
the affair of the Christchurch Civic Childcare Centre case mow seems
inevitable. The Employment Court ruling that the four women were unfairly
dismissed and the awarding of Compensation to them has shaken a number of
assumptions about the case. The public should be able to have confidence in
the ability of Christchurch
agencies to investigate fairly and to assess allegations of sexual abuse.
Such confidence is now lacking. While no inquiry is held an outpouring of comments
about the handling of the case by the police and the social welfare agencies
will continue. For the sake of genuine cases of sexual abuse the outpourings
need to be staunched and confidence in the system restored.
It seems ironic that an Employment
Court decision relating to the closing of the
creche should have impelled the latest calls for an inquiry. The judiciary of
the High Court and Court of Appeal have .offered almost no criticism of the
process by which four women (later discharged) and one man (now in jail) were
accused of ,abusing children in their care at the creche. It is the failure
of the system to address the issue that continues to fuel the controversy. In
other countries similar cases have been reviewed.
An inquiry would produce important lessons for the rest of the country and
would no doubt contain recommendations about the legislation dealing with
children's evidence and the role of Social Welfare specialist interviewers.
It may well be time for judges to warn juries once again that it is dangerous
to convict without the presence of corroboration. The creche case suggests
that corroboration is indeed a vital safeguard. Also, an inquiry would,
ascertain whether the police acted reasonably in deciding to bring charges.
An inquiry can be justified solely on the ground that new information on
issues in the case is now available. Research results published after the
trial of Peter Ellis in 1992 have added to the pool of knowledge on the
reliability of allegations by young children. We now know about the
potentially distorting effects of repeated interviews, of repeating
questions, of negative influences about a subject, of leading questions, and
of questioning long after an event.
It would be a false economy to limit the inquiry solely to the case of the
four women. If flaws are exposed in the handling of their case they will
apply equally if not with greater force to the case against Peter Ellis. A
finding exonerating or condemning the .handling of the investigation relating
to the women would not quell the disquiet in some quarters about the validity
of the convictions against Ellis. By the same token, neither would it be
likely to alter the opinion of those who firmly believe justice was done in
that respect. What we can hope an enquiry would do, is help establish
reasonable and acceptable rules and parameters for the procedures to be
followed in such investigations in the future, and end the controversy about
the Christchurch case.
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