The Christchurch Civic Creche Case
	News Reports
	1999
	The Dominion October 20 1999 Ellis should get retrial based on science - expert A Victoria University psychology lecturer said yesterday that convicted child abuser Peter Ellis deserved a new trial based on science. Ellis, convicted and sentenced to 10 years' jail in 1993 for the sexual abuse of children at the Christchurch Civic Creche, is due to be freed in February. Memory specialist Maryanne Garry said research into children's memory had grown by "leaps and bounds" since Ellis's conviction. "The jury should have been properly educated when Ellis was originally tried by allowing psychologists to discuss the research on children's memory, something that didn't happen during the trial," Dr Garry said. Speaking after the Court of Appeal rejected Ellis's latest appeal, she took issue with suggestions by an expert crown witness who had argued children were quite resistant to misleading suggestion of abuse. Research since Ellis's 1993 conviction showed that children could be wildly inaccurate about events, she said. There did not have to be a lot of suggestion involved. Simply asking them repeated "yes" or "no" questions could cause them to create false stories they probably came to believe -- stories that could be incredibly coherent and filled with detail. Dr Garry also took exception to a trial statement that the creche children's behaviour was consistent with true abuse. Research showed there was no consistent cluster of symptoms that reliably classified child abuse, she said. Meanwhile, a Christchurch sex abuse counsellor, the Rev Patricia Allen, speaking on behalf of relatives of children who attended the childcare centre, has praised the Court of Appeal decision as final proof of Ellis's guilt. "The court's latest rejection of an appeal . . . has put his guilt beyond all doubt." * Ellis is seeking a free pardon from Governor-General Sir Michael Hardie Boys, as well as a commission of inquiry into the creche allegations.