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The Governor General has rejected
Peter Ellis’ application for a pardon, Justice Minister Phil Goff announced
today. Mr Goff said he had advised the
Governor General that the application be declined based on Retired Chief
Justice Sir Thomas Eichelbaum’s report into the Ellis case. The Eichelbaum report, also
released today, concluded that the case for a pardon had failed to prove that
the convictions were unsafe. Mr Goff said Sir Thomas Eichelbaum
and two international experts on child testimony had 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 the contamniation
by others." In his report Sir Thomas
Eichelbaum said the case had failed "by a distinct margin." "I have not found this
anything like a borderline judgement," he
said. Ellis was convicted in 1993 on 13
charges of sexually abusing children in his care at the Christchurch Civic Crèche.
He spent six-and-a-half years in
prison, but maintained his innocence throughout and refused early parole
because it would have required that he admit guilt. He was released in February last
year. |
