The Press
March 21 2001
Witch-hunt trapped Ellis - author
by Martin Van Beynen
The author of a
long-awaited book on the Christchurch Civic Childcare Centre case has concluded
that convicted child abuser Peter Ellis was the victim of a witch-hunt.
Writing in Touchy Subject -- Teachers Touching Children, a collection of
articles on the shift in the relationship between teachers and young children,
author Lynley Hood said she had found no evidence of illegality by anyone
accused in the case.
After years of "dredging through the mire" she had instead found
convincing evidence that "more than 100 children had been subject to
unpleasant and psychologically hazardous procedures for no good reason, and
that a group of capable and caring adults with no inclinations towards sexual
conduct with children had had their lives ruined as a result".
Ultimately, the question of how the police, the child-protection services, and
the justice system had got it wrong had escalated her investigation into an
intensive study of the last 30 years of
The study had revealed a convergence of feminism, religious conservatism, and
the child- protection movement under the banner of combating child abuse.
With
Special investigative techniques and special investigators had to be devised
and special laws passed.
Law changes that "swept away the rights of suspects to a fair trial"
and the near-universal acceptance that the coerced evidence of child sexual
abuse was reliable made the "late 20th century sexual abuse panic",
possible.
"In
Ms Hood, whose previous book credits include Sylvia and Minnie Dean -- Her Life
and Crimes, has been writing her book on the creche case, A City Possessed, for
the last seven years. It is due to be released this year.
The results of a ministerial inquiry into the case, conducted by former Chief
Justice Sir Thomas Eichelbaum, which were released by the Government last week,
found the convictions against Ellis were safe.
The Court of Appeal has twice rejected Ellis' contentions that the complainant
children's evidence was unreliable. Ellis served 6<> years of a 10-year
jail sentence imposed for 13 convictions of abusing children in his care.