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Otago Daily Times
June 10
1998
Ellis team weighs options
NZPA
Wellington: Convicted child abuser Peter Ellis
was expected to discuss further options with his defence team in Christchurch
last night, after the Court of Appeal yesterday turned down his application
for bail.
Ellis' lawyer, Judith Ablett-Kerr, QC, said that four avenues remained open
to her before her client's second appeal hearing, expected later this year.
The court turned down his first appeal in 1994.
"The first course of action is that we can accept the parameters that
the Court of Appeal has set, which would mean that we would be dealing with
narrow grounds for the appeal," she said on National Radio.
"We can go back to the Governor-General and ask him to broaden the scope
so that we get a wider ambit in the Court of Appeal, or we can go to the
Privy Council in London
and appeal the decision.
"The fourth ground is that we can ask for a Royal Commission. Where we
go from here will depend on the decision the defence team actually makes
after they've sat down and spoken with Mr Ellis.
"We're hoping to fly down and see him tonight."
Ellis (40) is in the sixth year of a 10-year sentence on 13 counts of
sexually abusing children under his care at the Christchurch Civic Creche. He
is serving his sentence at Rolleston Prison, outside Christchurch.
After yesterday ruling, Mrs Ablett-Kerr said Ellis was "not surprised,
but he's a bit confounded by it all".
"He can't understand why we are where we're at, at the moment," she
said.
However, while it dismissed the bail application yesterday, the Court of
Appeal did not rule out another application.
"The position could change in various respects warranting a further
application but we are not to be taken as indicating any view as to the
likelihood of success of a future application," court president Sir Ivor
Richardson said.
The decision followed a hearing in chambers last week when Mrs Ablett-Kerr
sought to widen the scope of the matters referred back to the Appeal Court by
the Governor-General, Sir Michael Hardie Boys.
Sir Ivor said the appeal should be confined to the four grounds contained in
Sir Michael's Order-in-Council.
The first ground was that the methods of obtaining evidence from the child
complainants were flawed.
Secondly, the recantation of one of the children was of greater significance
than the court appreciated.
The third ground concerned the impartiality of the jury and referred to the
mother of one of the children working with the partner of a juror.
The fourth ground was that photographs of the creche, which the Crown had not
disclosed to the defence, could support the defence that sexual abuse did not
happen in the toilet area.
Mrs Ablett-Kerr argued last week that the rehearing was not restricted to the
four grounds. She wanted to produce new evidence. She had also submitted, as
one of the grounds for granting bail, that she needed Ellis to assist in
preparing the case.
The application had proposed that he live in Dunedin with his brother.
But a request to widen the terms of reference must be decided by the
Governor-General, Sir Ivor said.
"Regrettably, there is so much present uncertainty as to what Mr Ellis
will ultimately put in issue and when that will be resolved that we cannot
confidently predict when a fixture could be set and when the substantive
hearing would take place," he said.
Mrs Ablett-Kerr told the court last week that it was on notice that a
miscarriage of justice might have occurred and accordingly the court should
be more ready to grant bail than it would otherwise.
Justices Richardson, Gault and Henry said it was not obvious that the grounds
of the rehearing would necessarily lead to the quashing of the convictions.
Also, there was much uncertainty about when the case would be reheard. Mrs
Ablett-Kerr had suggested a November fixture date.
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