The Christchurch Civic Creche Case

News Reports Index

1999 July-Dec



Waikato Times
July 8 1999

No new Ellis facts: Crown
NZPA

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 after being convicted of 13 charges of abusing children at the Christchurch Civic Creche and other addresses.

Yesterday, 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 has argued for the convictions to be quashed on six grounds. Mr France said 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.

"The repackaging of existing material does not amount to new and cogent material."