The Dominion
March 22 2001
Ellis 'a victim of witch-hunt'
NZPA
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 about the shift in the relationship between teachers and young
children, author Lynley Hood says she found no evidence of illegality by anyone
accused in the case.
After years of "dredging through the mire", she 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 got it wrong drew her into an intensive study of the past 30
years of
The study revealed a convergence of feminism, religious conservatism and the
child-protection movement under the banner of combating child abuse. With
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 books include Sylvia! and
Minnie Dean -- Her Life and Crimes, has been writing her book on the creche
case, A City Possessed, for the past seven years. It is due to be published
this year.
The results of a ministerial inquiry into the case, conducted by former chief
justice Sir Thomas Eichelbaum, which were issued by the Government last week,
found the convictions against Mr Ellis were safe. The Court of Appeal has twice
rejected Mr Ellis's contentions that the complainant children's evidence was
unreliable. Mr Ellis served 6<> years of a 10-year jail sentence imposed.