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TV3
November 16, 1997
The Case In Question
Producer: Amanda Millar And Melanie Reid
Reporter: Melanie Reid
Part Two
Intro Louise Wallace:
Anyone with any knowledge of the American and English Day Care Child
Abuse cases would recognise the Christchurch
Civic Creche Case almost as a carbon copy. It was a time of an American
driven philosophy about child sex abuse, that "children never lie"
and that "a child claiming to be sexually abused must always be telling
the truth".
And as with the Creche Case no medical evidence, no forensic evidence and no
corroborated evidence was required.
In Christchurch,
children in the Creche Case were interviewed extensively using anatomically
correct dolls, some five or six times.
Five years on, interviewing standards in New Zealand now stipulate one
interview only and no anatomical dolls. But the new standards have been of no
help to Peter Ellis.
But back to the case as it was in 1993. The four female creche workers in
this case were discharged before their trial, but at one point police wanted
to arrest even more women creche workers, even Peter Ellis's mother. You see
the police and Social Welfare specialists were convinced Peter Ellis was an
abuser and that being the case, they believed he couldn't have acted alone.
Melanie Reid's special investigation continues.
Melanie Reid
(V/O) When
it came to the Creche Case Christchurch was a city divided...the believers
and the non believers...and to this day the two camps remain. While the non
believers cry injustice, many of the believers like former Detective Colin
Eade are convinced of an even darker scenario.
Colin
Eade
There's at least more than ten offenders. And from what children told their
parents at least eighty children were affected.
Melanie
Reid
And what do you base that on?
Colin
Eade
I base it on what the children say.
Melanie
Reid
What do they say?
Colin
Eade
They say that they were taken to places where they were abused by Peter Ellis
and other people, they say that they were filmed and they say that they were
the subject of abuse, systematic abuse by numbers of men.
Melanie
Reid
But what do you really base that on, apart from the children?
Colin
Eade
That's all I base it on. That's what the whole case was based on and there's
nothing wrong with that.
Peter
Ellis
The things the children have said about me or things that have meant to have
happened is that I've dug up Jesus Christ, that I buried a child called
Andrew in a coffin, that I sent a child...two children across the road and
one of them didn't make it, he was run over and killed. I'm sort of thinking
who's listening to this. I'm meant to have cooked kittens and fed them to
children, driven them out to QE2, tied them up and thrown them in the deep
end and left them in the water. I'm meant to have cooked children, pet
giraffes. I'm meant to have a batch and I took the children there all day and
people are not meant to have noticed these things. It's not bizarre, it's
totally and utterly unbelievable and I'm hearing people say that they believe
it.
Melanie
Reid
To ensure the Crown's credibility at the trial all the really bizarre
allegations and suggestions of cooked kittens, dead children and Jesus Christ
were excluded. Of the 126 children interviewed 21 would make it through to
the pre-trial hearing and by the time of the actual trial, the number of
children dropped to just thirteen. The whole process, from the early
allegations through to Peter Ellis's guilty verdict would take more than a
year and a half...and there for every day of it was Detective Colin Eade. (On
Cam) There have been suggestions that you were on a bit of a power and
control trip.
Colin
Eade
Yeah and I could see why that could be seen.
Melanie
Reid
Is that true?
Colin
Eade
I think it was the sort of enquiry that needed one person in charge of it, or
in control of it, and that is the way I conducted it.
Melanie
Reid
Were you the right man for the job?
Colin
Eade
I wish it wasn't me. I wish I hadn't done it but I think I was the right
person for the job at the time because of my experience on the unit and my
general experience and yeah, I do, I do think so.
Melanie
Reid
(V/O) There are many creche parents
that agree with Colin Eade, that he was right man for the job, but some
parents think he went too far. Eade as we know was the face of the police as
far as the parents were concerned, certainly in the first months of the
enquiry. But we also know Eade was extremely stressed and he was in
psychological trouble. And this was the man dealing with a very frightened
and bewildered group of parents.
(To
Cam) Tonight
we'll examine three cases, one where a child didn't go through the court
process, another where the child went part way through, but the first case
we'll look at is of a child who went through the entire court procedure. In
fact she was one of the seven children Peter Ellis was found guilty of
abusing. We'll talk to her father. We have agreed not to use his voice, and
to only use a transcript of our recorded interview to ensure we do not lead
to the identification of his daughter.
Graphic Sequence:
Father:
We were convinced
that in the first part she hadn't been abused at all.
Melanie
Reid
What made you change your mind?
Father:
Well the
interview procedure I suppose and the results we were told of the interview?
Melanie
Reid
By?
Father:
Colin Eade.
Melanie
Reid
And how did you find him ?
Father:
Initially he was
fine. Subsequently he sort of became a bit more erratic. It seemed to be a
very personal thing to him.
Melanie
Reid
What indicators were there to you that he was a little bit worrisome perhaps.
Father:
I would have
preferred a more professional approach I suppose. On one occasion I
questioned him...well I tried to, while we were trying to make our mind up
whether to go ahead with it. I asked him whether there was someone beyond him
who was keeping an eye on the overall direction of the case, whether there
was an assessment being made by, say a committee of people who are looking at
it, and he got really upset and stood up and walked around the room saying I
suppose now you'll want to pull out of this and you won't want to be
involved. He became really quite upset.
Melanie
Reid
What about ?
Father:
About how you
know, I suppose how we wanted to pull out. I was just one of these bloody
intellectuals that just thought too much and didn't really want to realise
that my child had been abused.
Melanie
Reid
So was he quite abusive to you ?
Father:
Oh yeah. He was
... we just were sitting down and watching in amazement as he stomped around
the room shouting at us. Then he just walked out without a word.
Colin
Eade
All I'll say is they were discussing things with me and I decided to leave
and said I'm leaving. There were no threats.
Melanie
Reid
Do you think that there was any possibility that you may have intimidated
them in any way?
Colin
Eade
Not at all.
Melanie
Reid
(V/O) The next stage the child's father
recalls was when Brent Stanaway the Crown Prosecutor came to see them at
their home.
Graphic Sequence:
Father:
He came across in
a way that satisfied us. He said there are some cases they won't go ahead
with. The more bizarre cases really, they won't be pursuing, the more
outrageous claims. Only the ones that had some substance would be followed up
and we were persuaded by him really to go ahead.
Melanie
Reid
Did you try to pull out?
Father:
No. No we didn't.
I wish we had.
Mother:
I thought for a
long time that people were looking for the truth and I don't think they were.
I think they were looking for a monster.
Melanie
Reid
(V/O) The second case we look at is that of a child who went part way through
the court process. In the early stages though her mother resisted becoming
involved, until she felt she had no choice
Mother:
Oh I felt
terrible, felt under terrible pressure.
Melanie
Reid
By who?
Mother:
By everybody. By
all of the Social Workers, it felt like every time the phone rang it was
somebody from Social Welfare or the police or Colin Eade wanting something
from us and it was awful. We couldn't escape from it. We couldn't seem to get
away from it.
Melanie
Reid
(V/O) When her daughter finally did do an interview her mother was surprised
to find out that the specialists believed her child had been abused.
Mother:
Everybody told me
she had been, except of course my child.
Melanie
Reid
When you say everybody?
Mother:
The social
workers. The sexual abuse unit. Colin Eade. These are the people. These are
the experts. The experts were telling me that they thought our child had been
abused. I also asked at that first interview how come she'd shown no signs
and they said 'But this is the first time in history that children are
disclosing and there's been no signs'.
Melanie
Reid
(V/O) At Peter Ellis' pre-trial
hearing, the girl was one of 21 children whose evidence was presented. But
her mother believed hysteria had overtaken rational thinking, so she withdrew
her child from any further legal proceedings.
Mother:
But you see I'm
in denial, I'm also in denial I was told. So what do you do?
Melanie
Reid
By who?
Mother:
By one of the
social workers me I was in denial or I could be in denial.
Melanie
Reid
Which means exactly what?
Mother:
That I don't want
to hear the bad stuff.
Melanie
Reid
(V/O) This mother actually got to see
her daughter's interview tape and she couldn't believe what she saw.
Mother:
I nearly laughed
out loud if it hadn't been so sad. If I had been strong and seen it from the
beginning she would never have had another interview and we would have
dropped out immediately. It was almost laughable.
Melanie
Reid
(V/O) And thirdly Mary Cox's story. Her
child didn't have any part in the court proceedings. As in the previous case,
her daughter showed no signs of abuse but Mary too, felt cornered by the
pressure.
Mary Cox:
In effect when
you went for an evidential interview, it could have become perpetual because
there was one interview then it was, 'Well, nothing was disclosed this time
but maybe when your child loosens up, it may happen another time so come for another
interview'. I know we had two interviews and my child found it most peculiar
and I think bizarre and in the end, I thought enough is enough.
Melanie
Reid
Most of the seven children whose evidence convicted Peter Ellis had been
interviewed between three and six times. But one of those seven children has
since said she lied about Ellis abusing her. In a statement to 20/20 her
father explains.
Father:
My daughter
advised us she had lied about Peter Ellis during his Court of Appeal Hearing
in 1994 that the statements she had made to the interviewer which were later
used in evidence against Peter Ellis in court were in fact not true. She gave
no specific reason as to why she had made up allegations against Peter Ellis
but she was emphatic that she had.
Melanie
Reid
(V/O) Colin Eade believes the reason
the child said she lied was simply because she didn't want to be involved any
more.
Colin
Eade
I don't believe it was a true recanting. She was a great complainant. She was
really clear about what had happened and she was very good in court.
Melanie
Reid
(V/O) Back to the father's statement to 20/20.
Father:
As parents we
were told to believe the children. We believed our daughter when she made the
allegations and we believe her now that she has told us she lied. Since the
day she told us she lied, now over three years ago, she has been consistent
in that stance and I have no reason not to believe her.
Colin
Eade
It just means that she's wanting to say, 'Look it didn't happen'.
Melanie
Reid
Her parents believe her now.
Colin
Eade
I stand by what I say in relation to her original statements in the
interviews.
Melanie
Reid
Do you agree though Mr Eade that perhaps they might know their daughter
better than you.
Colin
Eade
They may do. Well of course they do. But in relation to that complaint who
knows what's gone on around the child's withdrawal.
Melanie
Reid
(V/O) The three charges relating to the child would be quashed. However 20/20
understands other children, whose evidence convicted Peter Ellis have also
recanted but it is considered that those children are in what is termed
"denial".
Colin
Eade
It does happen a lot with child complainants that to some extent or other
they withdraw, or they try to withdraw from what's happened.
Melanie
Reid
So has it happened in the Creche Case.
Colin
Eade
Yes.
Melanie
Reid
With about how many children?
Colin
Eade
Well I'm not sure how many but I'd be surprised if not all of them have done
it at some stage.
Melanie
Reid
So you're telling me that you wouldn't be surprised if the children that
convicted Peter Ellis have since turned round and said 'Look this didn't
happen'.
Colin
Eade
At some stage.
Melanie
Reid
(V/O): Colin Eade's involvement with the parents didn't stop when the case finished.
Following the trial he had two relationships with creche mothers, both of
whom emphatically believe Peter Ellis abused their children
Colin Eade:
Well two
relationships, sometimes I guess you meet people that you like, sometimes
relationships come from them. I know how putting this can look, but I'm not
prepared to respond to any of that.
Melanie
Reid
In the next part of this report we question the impartiality of the jury who
convicted Peter Ellis. We put our concerns to prominent criminal barrister
Nigel Hampton, Queens Council.
Nigel Hampton:
The two things
about the jury in combination that you've told me, alarm me somewhat. I must
say I find it quite disconcerting.
Louise Wallace Back Announce:
Stay with us as
Melanie Reid's special investigation continues.
(Duration: 13'51")
Link to "The Case In
Question" Part 1 - Nov 16, 1997
Link to "The Case In
Question" Part 3 - Nov 16, 1997
Link to "The Case In
Question" Review - Nov 23, 1997
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