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Waikato
Times
November 17, 1997
Return creche case to court: QC
NZPA
New evidence in the controversial Christchurch civic creche case warranted
moves to bring the matter back to the Appeal Court, leading Christchurch
barrister Nigel Hampton QC said today.
Peter Ellis was found guilty of sexually abusing children at the Christchurch
Civic Childcare Centre between 1986 and 1992, and has served four years of a
10-year sentence at Christchurch's
Paparua Prison.
One of the jurors apparently knew the mother of one of the child complainants
who gave evidence against Ellis in 1993, television reports.
It also said the jury foreman, a Christchurch
clergyman, had officiated at the wedding of the case's lead prosecutor, Brent
Stanaway.
Today Mr Hampton, who worked on Peter Ellis' appeal, said there were grounds
to return the case to the Appeal
Court. It was clear two jurors had had the
potential to affect Ellis' case and the case should be taken to the
governor-general for recommendation back to the Appeal Court.
Mr Hampton said he spent two years in Tonga as chief justice only to
return to Christchurch
to find the case still whirling around.
"If injustice has been done, it is the very reason the case has stayed
alive.
"It was an extraordinary legal case. There was always a worrying thing
about the inquiry, regarding the allegations and the way the inquiry was
conducted," Mr Hampton said.
The Appeal Court
rejected an appeal against the verdicts in 1994, although it dismissed three
of the charges on evidence that the complainant concerned had recanted.
Dunedin QC Judith Ablett-Kerr is in the process of preparing a case asking
the governor-general to pardon Ellis.
Criticisms of the police case indicated questioning produced many of the
allegations, which showed the children could not be relied upon.
A spokesman for Ellis' former workmates, Winstone Wealleans, today appealed
for Ellis' immediate release. Mr Wealleans said they wanted the Government to
launch a ministerial inquiry and they were insisting on an urgent meeting
with Police Commissioner Peter Doone.
Two years ago the creche workers were awarded $1 million in total
compensation by the Employment
Court for unjustified dismissal. They had most
of that money stripped from them after their former employer, Christchurch
City Council, appealed to the Appeal
Court.
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