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A considerable number of people
will be pleased at the ruling the Governor-General Sir Michael Hardie Boys has arrived at in the case of the convicted
child molester Peter Ellis. Ellis has not been granted the pardon he sought.
Instead Sir Michael has agreed to a suggestion to widen the grounds of appeal
of his case to the Court of Appeal. This is an admirable solution to a
case which has caused considerable controversy since Ellis was convicted and
jailed in 1993 on 16 charges of molesting children at the Christchurch Civic Creche. It leaves the decision in the hands of the
country's second highest court, and puts the onus on Ellis' counsel to plead
on matters to be brought forward in his favour. The
appeal will go before the court at the end of the month. Ellis has always vehemently
protested his innocence of the charges, and over the
years has gathered support for his stance. This is the second time he has
petitioned the Governor-General for the exercise of the Royal prerogative of
mercy. In addition, he has twice refused to accept parole on the grounds that
to do so would be an admission of guilt. Over the years of his
imprisonment, doubt has been cast on the accuracy of the evidence given
against him by the children. This alone has caused unease and disquiet. The
evidence of some of the children was clearly in the realm of fantasy and
referred to children being made to stand in a circle while adults stood
outside it playing guitars. They were slit-eyed adults with knives. Other details given were of
children being put in a tunnel or cavity areas beneath a trapdoor, visits to
graveyards and being put into a cage with a cat and left there, of needles
and stakes being used against children and children being made to hurt one
another. As fantastic as some of the
evidence was -- even to the extent of satanic ritual -- there was also the
suspicion that the prosecution had weeded out even more unbelievable
allegations made by the children in an effort to make the case more
acceptable to the jury. Then too throughout his incarceration, there have
been claims that some of the children had retracted their evidence. Doubts
have also been cast on the impartiality of the jury which, considering the
high temperature the trial generated, is perhaps to
be expected. When a case such as this causes
doubts over a long period, it is as well to have it re-examined in the
courts. |
