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March 13 2001 Press Release:
New Zealand Government The Governor-General has declined Mr Peter Ellis' application
for a pardon, the Minister of Justice Phil Goff announced today. The Minister also released a copy of the Report of the
Ministerial Inquiry into the Peter Ellis case, by former Chief Justice the
Right Honourable Sir Thomas Eichelbaum. "The report formed the basis of my advice to the
Governor-General. Sir Thomas spent over 400 hours studying the tapes, trial
transcripts, Court of Appeal decisions and other material relevant to Mr
Ellis' conviction. He was advised by two international experts on child abuse
and child testimony, Professor Graham Davies from "The two international experts and Sir Thomas Eichelbaum
all independently reached the same conclusion, that interviewing of the children
who gave evidence was appropriate and that the reliability of the evidence on
which the convictions were based was not undermined by contamination by
others." "Sir Thomas' conclusion was clear-cut and I quote it: 'The case advanced on behalf of Mr Ellis fails to meet the test
identified earlier, to satisfy the Inquiry that the convictions were unsafe,
or that a particular conviction was unsafe. It fails by a distinct margin; I
have not found this anything like a borderline judgment' "The Ministerial inquiry was set up after the second Court
of Appeal hearing into the Ellis case. In that hearing, the Court of Appeal
dismissed Mr Ellis's appeal as failing to show there were serious flaws or
problems with the conviction which were unknown at the time of trial." "The Court of Appeal however observed that its jurisdiction
was limited, and that some matters might be better addressed by an inquiry.
In particular, it could not carry out a comprehensive review of contemporary expert
opinion on matters affecting the reliability of children's evidence in
allegations of mass sexual abuse." "Following the Court of Appeal hearing, Mr Ellis sought a
pardon and a Commission of Inquiry into the case. No justice system is
infallible", Mr Goff said. "I established the inquiry to ensure
that all matters relevant to the convictions were fully considered". "That being said, a wide-ranging factual inquiry of the
kind sought by Mr Ellis was neither necessary or appropriate. It would be
unrealistic to expect that children who were very young at the time of the
case could give a better account of the facts ten years after the events than
they could at the time of the trial. It would also be quite unfair to put the
children through the trauma and stress of a factual reinvestigation." "Nor was it appropriate to relitigate matters which
had been clearly dealt with by the
Court of Appeal and the two earlier applications for exercise of the Royal
prerogative of mercy." "The Ministerial inquiry was comprehensive and detailed. I
am confident that it dealt with all of the issues which warranted further
investigation to protect against the possibility of a miscarriage of
justice." "Mr Ellis's case has now had the most thorough examination
possible, including: * A very lengthy deposition hearings, where
issues about the reliability of the childrens' evidence were examined in
detail; * The tapes and transcripts of the childrens'
interviews were subjected to close scrutiny in contested pre-trial applications;
* Questions about the quality of interviewing
and possibilities of contamination were covered in detail during a long and
thorough trial before Justice Williamson, one of * The Court of Appeal has considered the case
twice. The convictions have been upheld by a total of seven different Court
of Appeal judges. On each occasion, the judgments of the Court of Appeal were
unanimous; * The Ministerial Inquiry involved two
pre-eminent international experts and was conducted by a retired Judge with
16 years experience on the bench, 10 of them as Chief Justice." "I have given to the Governor-General the only advice which
could be given on the basis of the Inquiry's conclusions and the lengthy
process through which the Ellis case has been taken," Mr Goff said. Appendix (excerpts from Ministerial
Inquiry) "I should add that I do not think that cross-talk alone is sufficient
to explain the similar accusations made against Mr Ellis, particularly in
relation to incidents in the crèche toilets. This is more redolent of natural
variations on a theme rather than the simple glib repetition of basically the
same accusation relayed between a number of children. There is a degree of
detail in some of these accusations which is not in itself proof of the
charges against Mr Ellis, but does mean, in my view, that such accusations
deserve to be taken seriously."
Louise Sas |