From: Dave McL ([email protected])
Subject: Re: Peter ELLIS : Complainants say guilt "Beyond Doubt" The Press Oct 16
Newsgroups: nz.general
Date: 1999/10/19

James K wrote:
> Was there a pretty strong Catholic component in the crèche case?

No. The parents were mostly New Age liberals, with most of them being social workers, counsellors, teachers, journalists, librarians and the like.

The judge was a Catholic, though I really don't see what relevance that had. More to the point, the jury foreman was an Anglican minister who just so happened also to have been the marriage celebrant of the Crown prosecutor, Brent Stanaway, and he also knew professionally the Crown's main expert witness, Karen Zelas.

In any other court case, such relationships would have caused an immediate mistrial. In this one, the Court of Appeal didn't even want to hear about it.