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Evidence from children that led to
the conviction of creche worker Peter Ellis was contaminated, his lawyer told
the Court of Appeal yesterday. Ellis was jailed for 10 years in
1993 after a jury found him guilty on six counts of indecent assault, three
counts of doing an indecent act, one count of inducing an indecent act, and
three counts of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection. The appeal is being heard by the
full five-judge Bench and is expected to last four days. Ellis' mother Lesley
was in the court yesterday. Judith Ablett-Kerr, QC, for Ellis,
said evidence from the children, aged between five and seven, could not be
relied on. Other children said Ellis had done things to them, but their
evidence was later withdrawn. A 3<<1/2>>-year-old
boy who told his father in November 1991 he "hated Peter's black
penis", and thus began the questioning by other parents, was never the
subject of a charge and never gave evidence. Mrs Ablett-Kerr asked the judges
to consider the appeal, Ellis' second, on six grounds: * The techniques used to obtain
evidence. * The risks of contamination of
children's evidence. * Grounds involving retraction. * Grounds involving trial
procedure. * Grounds involving jury. * Grounds involving non-disclosure
of material. She said the weight and credence
given to the children's evidence in the six-week trial was unjustified. "This was a case of mass
allegation at a daycare centre," she said. "There are undeniable
risks associated with that type of case." The strength of the appeal was in
the contamination coupled with interviewing techniques in a mass allegation
case. Ellis was denied a fair trial under common law and the Bill of Rights
as the jury was biased and had "a predisposition to find him
guilty". The jury also did not have the
benefit of expert evidence to interpret the children's evidence. Research now
showed retrieving memories from children aged five to seven was "highly
dangerous", she said. (Proceeding) |
