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Otago Daily Times
July 8 1999
Jury in Ellis trial had ‘full picture', Crown lawyer tells Appeal Court
NZPA
Wellington: The jury that found Peter Ellis
guilty of sex offences in 1993 had the "full picture", the Court of
Appeal was told yesterday.
Ellis is serving a 10-year jail sentence in Christchurch
after being convicted of 13 charges of abusing children at the Christchurch
Civic Creche and other Christchurch
addresses.
In the third day of Ellis' second appeal, Simon France, from the Crown Law
Office, said: "The new evidence just isn't there."
Ellis lost his first appeal in 1994.
Ellis' lawyer, Judith Ablett-Kerr QC, has argued for the convictions to be
quashed on six grounds: techniques used to obtain evidence, risks of
contamination, retraction of evidence, the trial procedure, the jury and the
non-disclosure of material.
The defence had said that later research had produced a clearer understanding
of children's development compared with 1992.
However, Mr France
said the research was limited and the risks it exposed were not quantifiable
beyond broad assessments.
"Some of the [appeal] material would seem plainly inadmissible, such as
experts giving their opinion on a particular child's credibility or testimony
that as a group, parents cannot be believed."
There was "nothing new" factually in attempts by the defence to
prove the children's evidence had been contaminated by repeated interviews
with their parents, he said.
"The repackaging of existing material does not amount to new and cogent
material."
While defence lawyer Greg King said yesterday the retraction of one child's
evidence was an important factor that was overlooked by the trial jury, Mr France
said the conviction relating from that allegation was quashed.
"That is where the significance begins and ends."
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