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Convicted child molester Peter
Ellis fronted up to his parole hearing yesterday but staunchly maintained his
innocence and refused to accept parole, which he said would imply he was
guilty. Ellis, who has been moved to a
self-care unit at Paparua Prison where prisoners go before they are freed,
told the Parole Board he would not seek parole because he was innocent. He was controversially convicted
in 1993 of 16 charges of sexually molesting children while working at the
Christchurch Civic creche. Ellis, 40, told the board
yesterday: "I cannot accept any parole that you can offer me because the
board can only release me as a guilty man. I am a human being and, of course,
I very much want my freedom, but I simply cannot accept it if it is to be
given on the basis that I am a guilty man. "I am not a guilty man. I am
an innocent man." Last year he declined to attend
his parole hearing. His lawyer, Judith Ablett-Kerr,
QC, said Ellis declined to answer the board's questions, but had attended the
hearing "out of courtesy". The hearing lasted an hour as Mrs
Ablett-Kerr discussed the "seemingly irreconcilable" position Ellis
found himself in with the board. At the end of the hearing, the board said a
decision had to be made, regardless of his stance. The decision was reserved.
Ellis has twice been refused bail
pending a Court of Appeal hearing set down for May. His first appeal was dismissed in
1994, but he was granted a rare second hearing after a petition calling for a
pardon was presented to Governor-General Sir Michael Hardie Boys. Mrs Ablett-Kerr said Ellis was
delighted that the Justice Ministry had asked Sir Thomas Thorp, a retired
High Court judge and former head of the Parole Board, to investigate the
petition. Sir Thomas will report his
findings to Sir Michael. |
