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The Christchurch Civic
Creche Case |
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Pity, first of all, the children.
They have spent their childhood believing horrific things were done to them,
and that is a blight that won't be easily removed. They began in all
innocence. Mum or dad wanted to hear what went on at the creche. Soon
everybody else wanted to hear. The consequences just went on and on. Pity, too, the parents. The
Christchurch Civic Childcare Centre was the best they could find. The other
parents were teachers, social workers, professionals who could afford the
best. They wouldn't have chosen the place lightly. For years, it seems to
work. The children are happy, and there are no more than the normal ups and
downs of any committee-run outfit. Then worries begin to emerge. The
phone is ringing with dreadful stories. Meetings are called. Experts arrive
to tell you about the signs. They warn you to watch for denial, which can be
a victim's way of coping. Then the horror is out in the open: child sex
abuse. The experts say it's more prevalent that you'd ever believe. They have
overseas evidence. It fits a terrible pattern, and it's happening here in
Christchurch. You've been told not to, but you
can't help but ask your children more. What do you mean, he took you for a walk?
What did he do then? Where did he touch you? It all adds up, especially when,
against your liberal, non-judgmental better self, you've always felt iffy
about that guy at daycare who seemed a bit over the top. Pity, too, the cops.
They've been told for years they're insensitive, not in tune with the reality
out there in the 1990s. Experts are telling them to empathise, to believe,
not to be unfeeling males. Besides, the cops have kids themselves. Anyone who'd
interfere with a child is as bad as they come. Throw the book at the bastard.
He deserves it. The world will thank you. But what if it simply didn't
happen? What if it all began with the obsession of a few about now
discredited international literature and techniques that unearthed ritual
abuse as the secret sin our out times? All along you had a parent's
niggling guilt about putting your child in care, and now this. A parent would
appear brutally uncaring to disbelieve, when so many were saying yes. The trouble
is, there is no way out. How do you admit to yourself that your own
irrational fear created this horror? You don't. You organise. You form
support groups. You hold on to the trauma because in the end, it's the last
vestige of faith in yourself as a parent. No-one set out with a conspiracy
in mind. No-one wanted his or her children to suffer. No-one, it seems,
started out hating Peter Ellis. They let him care for their children for
years. But they put him behind bars because everyone was saying there was an
unspeakable evil out there and it had to be exposed and its name was Peter
Ellis. In the outrage of those days it
seemed like cruelty to the children to stop and point out that most of the
allegations were beyond belief. Besides, the prosecution had the good sense
to cull the most outlandish charges from its evidence in court. The latest revelations of an
indiscreet cop and jurors who should not have been on that jury are maybe
just side issues. But they add to the picture of a case that has damaged
everyone it touched. The Ellis investigation and trial
assumed a hysterical momentum that abandoned the usual standards of
plausibility or reasonable doubt. New-age superstition, not justice, became
the guiding principle. Pity Peter Ellis. At the very
least, there should be a commission of inquiry, a cool reappraisal of the
case. It would surely lead to a pardon. And pity, in the end, the children
who really are abused every day. They do not make much news. Their abuse is
not ritualistic or satanic, and most often it happens at home. They do not
have support groups. They may contract syphilis or worse as toddlers. They
may grow up to be abusers or misfits. They may be just unhappy. If one of these children goes
ignored because a bunch of others lost their grip on reality, we will have
made an even bigger injustice. |
