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The Dominion
October 27, 1998
Waitai joins chorus of calls for Ellis to be freed
NZ First MP Rana Waitai, a former Gisborne police
commander, has made a strong plea for the freeing of convicted child-molester
Peter Ellis and has renewed calls for a commission of inquiry.
After visiting Ellis in Rolleston prison near Christchurch last week, Mr Waitai said he
"and a whole army of New Zealanders" were convinced Ellis was the
victim of "the extremes of sexual abuse and ritual abuse mania which
swept through this country in the early 1990s".
Mr Waitai said the royal commission of inquiry sought by the Ellis support
group was "the very least" Ellis was entitled to.
Ellis, starting his seventh year in prison after being convicted of offences
at a Christchurch
civic childcare centre, has about 15 months of his sentence to serve if the
usual get-out-early rules apply.
But Mr Waitai said he would not be surprised if such rules did not apply,
"because all kinds of other rules in the due process of law,
investigation, evidence and justice have been creatively applied to his
case".
He praised the support team for their compilation of the facts of the case,
saying the detail would do credit to a police homicide inquiry.
"The litany of fantastic complaints from alleged child victims is really
something else," Mr Waitai said.
"How sane officials and bureaucrats, let alone parents, could accept
those stories, makes one marvel at the mindless hysteria generated by the
sexual and ritual abuse industries.
"But then, of course, much of the children's evidence was never put to
the court because it was fantastic nonsense."
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