The Christchurch Civic Creche Case
	News Reports Index
	1999 July-Dec
	The Press July 8 1999 Evidence 'not there' for Ellis appeal NZPA Wellington - The jury that found Peter Ellis guilty of sex offences in 1993 had the "full picture", the Court of Appeal has been told. 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's 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's lawyer, Judith Ablett-Kerr, QC, has argued for the convictions to be quashed on six grounds. They are 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 to 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." In response to the defence statement that a specific juror could not fulfil his role because of his "self-disclosed pedophilic reactions to evidence," Mr France said: "There is no evidence to suggest this type of emotion will any more affect a person's judgment than anything else."