Sunday Star Times
April 1, 2001

Frank reply

Frank Haden tells us he is better informed and able to comment on the Ellis case (March 18) because he has inspected the toilets. As a parent of a child who attended the creche let me tell him a few facts.

Sometimes the place was not buzzing with staff, as Haden contends. The staff often gathered in the supervisors office, however the door to the toilet was only visible to her. This was not the only toilet in the creche.

Haden makes much of this "field of view" but this space was not the pristine, empty view much beloved by Ellis supporters, most of whom have never set foot in the place. It was a cluttered, visual minefield.

Haden has yet to explain Ellis' trips outside the creche with the kids, often supervising them himself, his intended route never written down, parents not informed.

So we have a situation where the open-plan toilets were not so open, where there is more than one toilet area, where the dynamic, adult filled creche was not always so and where Ellis disappeared outside without permission and without supervision.

Paedophiles are excellent manipulators, they groom their environment until it is primed and ready. Haden and others can consider themselves well and truly groomed.

Iain Mitchell
Rotorua.