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Sunday News
June 14, 1998
Ellis caught in ritual abuse web
by Rana Waitai
The case of Peter Ellis came and went when his application for bail was
turned down.
My interest in this matter was aroused after the 20/20 programme late last
year.
There had been a time seven years ago when, in my police capacity, I and
other policemen were curious about some odd aspects of the investigation. It
seemed that a new form of investigation had been developed for sexual abuse
allegations in which the usual rules of police inquiry were suspended.
We were later to see that new rules of evidence had also emerged and this was
disturbing because such things change very slowly and never at the whim of
fashion.
What then was that whim of fashion? It is what I call the sexual abuse
industry entering an hysterical phase in which the byword was that all males
are rapists and all children always tell the truth.
The proposition, apparently then embraced by policy makers, some police
investigators and some courts was that any child who alleges sexual abuse
will be believed come what may. The situation was then compounded by the
emergence of a totally crack-pot school of thought that I will call the
ritual abuse industry.
That phase passed quick enough but not before it enmeshed Peter Ellis in its
web. Peter Ellis was a victim of two hysterias that visited New Zealand in the early 90s. He
is now six years into his sentence and I, on the basis of my research, make
no bones about saying he is the innocent victim of a profound miscarriage of
justice.
David McLoughlan, a superb investigative journalist for North and South
magazine has documented the case in a readable way.
If you should come across the May issue of Penthouse you will marvel at the
article called the Puppeteer, the story of what happened in America when the sexual and ritual
abuse industry spread its hysteria there. To Peter Ellis it would be deja vu.
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