The Christchurch Civic Creche Case
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	The Press June 10 1998 Ellis's lawyer may appeal to Privy Council by Elinore Wellwood The lawyer acting for convicted child abuser Peter Ellis may go to the Privy Council in London now that Ellis's bail application has been refused. Ellis, 40, who is serving his sixth year of a 10-year jail sentence on charges of abusing children at the Christchurch Civic Childcare Centre, insists he is innocent. In Wellington yesterday, Appeal Court Justices Richardson, Gault, and Henry released their decision refusing Ellis bail, ahead of a second appeal court appearance this year. The judges also limited grounds for Ellis's Dunedin lawyer, Judith Ablett-Kerr, QC, to go to the court to the four points referred to in her petition to Governor-General Sir Michael Hardie-Boys this year. The Governor-General declined her petition for a free pardon, but referred Ellis's case back to the Appeal Court. Mrs Ablett-Kerr said last night: ``Peter's upset. He doesn't understand how they've reached the decision.'' His mother, Lesley Ellis, said she spoke to her son soon after they heard the news. ``He's angry. He feels they're just pushing us around. We feel like the minor players in this. The whole thing has got so much bigger than just us. ``Peter feels very strongly about the creche and the children, and the fact they will have to live with what they believe happened,'' Mrs Ellis said. Last Thursday, Mrs Ablett-Kerr applied for bail for Ellis. She said, first, that the methods of obtaining evidence from the allegedly abused children were flawed. She contrasted techniques used in their case and more recent techniques, the judgment said. Second, the significance of one child recanting, and three charges relating to that child being dropped on appeal, were greater than the Appeal Court had previously considered. The third ground concerned the jury's impartiality, and referred to one child's mother working with the partner of one of the jurors. Fourth, photos not shown to Ellis's defence team could support the defence that sexual abuse alleged to have happened in a toilet did not happen, and that there was an innocent explanation for some of the games described by the children. Mrs Ablett-Kerr told the Appeal Court bail hearing that she wanted to engage experts and to make the Crown disclose all the evidence it held. The judges said Mrs Ablett-Kerr would have to return to the Governor-General if she wanted to bring extra grounds before the Appeal Court hearing this year. The judges said granting bail before an appeal was unusual, and would be granted only in exceptional circumstances. However, they did not rule out a second application for bail if the terms of reference changed. Mrs Ablett-Kerr said yesterday that four options were open to her. She could go to the Privy Council in London to appeal against the decision yesterday to limit the grounds of appeal, or she could go back to the Governor-General to ask for extra grounds to be included. She could apply for a royal commission of inquiry into the case, as in the Arthur Allan Thomas case, or she could leave the judges' decision unchallenged. In yesterday's decision, the judges said one reason for refusing Ellis bail was because it was unclear when Ellis's case would go to the Appeal Court. They said the Appeal Court could hear the case in August. However, Mrs Ablett-Kerr suggested November to give her more time to work out points she wanted to raise in court, and to seek to widen the hearing's terms of reference. Also, little information was available to assess Ellis's risk to the public and to set bail conditions, they said. While Mrs Ablett-Kerr wanted Ellis to live in Dunedin with his brother so he could help with the case, the present grounds for appeal did not allow the judges to give any weight to that, they said. Right decision creche mother, page 3