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The Dominion,
February 5, 2000
Ellis inquiry not needed - law lecturer
A senior law lecturer urged Justice Minister Phil Goff yesterday not to hold
an inquiry into the case of convicted child abuser Peter Ellis.
Earlier this week Mr Goff gave a strong indication that an inquiry would be
held, if only into aspects of evidence.
But Waikato law lecturer Wendy Ball said the
need for an inquiry appeared to have passed.
"My thought is, since the Ellis trial, the Law Commission has done a
huge amount of work on vulnerable witnesses, and on a new evidence code.
"I'm not quite sure if (Mr Goff) needs to look at these areas, or if he
wants to consider the whole process."
There was no need to "reinvent the wheel", Ms Ball said.
"Of course there are process issues in anything as big as this, but
that's apart from the issue of guilt or innocence that's already been
decided.
"There have been questions about (evidence) techniques, but they have
been rectified already . . . I would like to be able to challenge the
inquiry."
After sitting through his trial and two Court of Appeal hearings, and sifting
through all the judgments and depositions' documents, she was personally
convinced of Ellis's guilt.
She had also talked to, and been moved by, some of the creche children who
had accused him as well as many of their parents.
The bizarre accusations of satanic abuse made against him had quite properly
been dropped before the 1993 trial, she said.
"This was not a satanic abuse case."
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