The Press
October 3, 2001
A date in court
The following is a
second extract from Lynley Hood's book, A City Possessed: The Christchurch
Civic Creche Case. Complainant families, and creche workers who were not
arrested, had their identities suppressed by court order. They appear in the
book under pseudonyms.
On 9 October, eight more charges were laid against Peter Ellis. Four were laid
jointly with Gaye Davidson, Marie Keys, and Jan Buckingham for "circle
incident" offences against Bart Dogwood, Kari Lacebark, and Julian Yew.
Three were for other offences against Bart Dogwood at
On 20 October, all five defendants made their first joint court appearance. On
that occasion Debbie Gillespie was charged, jointly with Ellis, with the
indecent assault and sexual violation of Fran Deodar. The interview on which
Fran's charges were based was requested by Ms Deodar in the wake of the women's
arrests. Fran had made no disclosure of abuse prior to the interview.
Also on 20 October, all five defendants were remanded on bail until the opening
of the depositions hearing on 2 November. The November date was originally set
for Ellis, but once the women were charged they too were included in the
hearing. For all the accused, getting the case to court as soon as possible was
a high priority. As long as the investigation continued, more charges were
likely to be laid.
However, Gerald Nation did not want the advantages of a prompt hearing for his
clients to be outweighed by the disadvantages of appearing in court with the
notorious Peter Ellis. "I told them they shouldn't have anything to do with
him. They couldn't afford to. If they associated with him, the case against him
would add to their difficulties" he explained.
"Quite right too," commented Rob Harrison. "Other counsel in
that position would have done the same thing." However, because all the
women's charges were laid jointly with Ellis, from the time of their arrests on
1 October 1992 until the end of the depositions hearing on 11 February 1993,
the public and the media perceived Nation's and Harrison's clients as a single
group. As Ellis' counsel,
"People are willing to believe horrible things about gay men, but when a
gay male is charged jointly with four women that's
bound to raise questions about the credibility of the charges," he said.
Nowhere were these questions raised more acutely than in the minds of Ellis'
former colleagues. Sandi recalled:
It hit us: My God, Peter hasn't done anything. For a while we believed the
police. But when the women were arrested we went back to our original feelings.
At creche I never felt uncomfortable about Peter caring for children. He
behaved oddly, but not in the sense that you thought he was deviant. It was
just Peter. He was odd. But he was a fantastic child- care worker, and the kids
did love him.
But by then the arrested women were fighting for their survival, and the
dangers of being associated with Ellis were obvious.
"I thought Peter was innocent, but I was looking out for number one,"
Gaye Davidson explained. 'I didn't want anything to do with him, in case I was
tarred with the same brush.'
"When I saw Peter in court I didn't know what to do," recalled Jan
Buckingham. "I was scared. I was really scared. There were lots of aggro
parents there. I avoided eye contact, and came home feeling disgustingly,
inhumanly low. Like Judas."
"I suppose Peter felt abandoned," mused
Sandi. "I think we were just so terrified for the four women, especially
the ones with children. Our priority was to get them off because their families
were being ripped apart."
* * *
With the depositions hearing due to open on 2 November, the police scoured the
Civic Child Care Centre, the Cranmer Centre, and 404
Hereford Street for trap doors, tunnels, cages, and ritual abuse paraphernalia.
They checked the Masonic Lodge, and other addresses suggested by complainant
parents. They interviewed potential witnesses, and encouraged them to believe
the worst.
In particular, the police were looking for evidence to shore up weaknesses in
the case against the women. Not that the case against Ellis was any stronger,
but what it lacked in quality it made up for in quantity. A weakness in the
"indecent act in a public place" charge against Gillespie and Ellis
was that the child witness had made no verbal disclosure. The charge was based
solely on the interviewer's interpretation of the child's play with dolls. A
weakness in the charges against Davidson, Keys, Buckingham, and Ellis,
involving Julian Yew and Kari Lacebark, was that they were laid solely on the
basis of Bart Dogwood's circle incident disclosure. Neither Julian nor Kari had
made disclosures supporting Bart's claim, and the Crown Solicitor had doubts
about 404
On 28 October, Eli had his third, and Bart and Kari had their fifth, DSW
interviews. Next day, Kari had her sixth interview. She said that Gaye put a
sharp knife up her vagina, and Peter's mother kicked and hit her. Eli and Bart
said they had sticks put up their bottoms. Bart talked about traps, tunnels,
and cages in the Cranmer Centre, and added Peter's
mother, Sandi, Susannah, and Suki to his list of
offenders. Eli's list included "Peter's mother", and men named
"Spike, Boulderhead, Yuckhead,
and Stupidhead".
Over the previous couple of months, the police had interviewed Ellis' mother
and Sandi at length, and made fruitless searches of their homes. Detective Nicholl had also shown Mrs Ellis an excerpt from a DSW
interview in which she received "honorable
mention" from Kari Lacebark. Mrs Ellis recalled:
Kari had her head down. I said, "I can't tell what she's saying." Rob
Nicholl got the transcript. He said he had to play
the tape a number of times to work out what she was saying. I got the
impression that what he thought she was saying was not necessarily what she was
saying. There was a piece where it said in the transcript "child indicates
masturbation". I said, "Hang on, all she did
was touch the baby's bottle!"
When the police searched Mrs Ellis' home, they took an Asian mask from the wall
and all the videotapes they could find. When they searched Sandi's home, they
took her diaries. A typical entry read: "29 August 1991: Work was great. Outside all day, water play."
* * *
October, the police had been investigating the Civic Creche for almost a year,
but they still weren't ready to take the case to court. With the depositions
hearing due to open the following Monday, on Thursday 29 October, Chris Lange
made his second application that week for an adjournment. In his ruling,
District Court Judge Green stated:
The matter of principal significance raised by the Crown is that, arising from
these latest re- interviews, there is a real possibility that further people might
be charged. Indeed Mr Lange put it at a high probability I think that the
interests of justice require that this matter proceed ... It concerns me that
they (the children) have been so frequently interviewed. It concerns me that
there is the likelihood of further interviews. If there is any truth in the
allegations ... it is very desirable ... that such
recollections ... are placed well behind them rather than being
revisited on such a regular basis ... The application is refused.
Weeks later, when Gerald Nation obtained a copy of Bart Dogwood's 28 October
interview, he advised Sandi and Susannah that they had been named.
Sandi was astounded: "The year Bart was at the Civic was the year I was on
maternity leave."
Susannah made ready: Gerald said, "I don't want to alarm you, but if the
police used Bart's evidence to arrest the women there's no reason why they
won't arrest you, so be prepared."
I made some low-key phone calls to friends about taking the kids to school if I
couldn't be there. I got the house spic and span. I chose my outfit. I ironed a
skirt. The police never came. It was a real anti- climax. All I was worried
about was how I presented my house-wifely duties and whether I had a skirt. By
then we'd realised that how people saw you was more important than what had
really happened.
A City Possessed: The