Christchurch, New Zealand.
Monday, 26 November, 2001.
Front Page.
By MARTIN VAN BEYNEN
A recently published and acclaimed book about the
Christchurch creche case should be on Justice Minister Phil Goff's required
holiday reading list, Peter Ellis says.
Dunedin author Lynley Hood's book, A City Possessed, has
prompted a host of law lecturers and prominent lawyers to question the safety
of 13 child abuse convictions against Mr Ellis.
He was sentenced to 10 years jail in 1993 on the charges and
released after serving about 6 1/2 years of the jail term.
Reviews of the book have been positive and have renewed
calls for Mr Ellis to be pardoned.
Mr Ellis said yesterday that his mother had written to all
120 members of Parliament urging them to read the book. Mr Goff had replied
that her letter would be referred to the Ministry of Justice.
"That wouldn't do any good," he said. "I want
someone who can make a decision to actually sit down and read the book.
"He's got law professors and QCs up and down the
country saying pardon him and sort it out."
Mr Goff needed to stop clinging to the Eichelbaum report – a
review of the case ordered by Mr Goff which was done by former Chief Justice
Sir Thomas Eichelbaum earlier this year – and "show a bit of
courage".
"He could at least read the book," Mr Ellis said.
Another book, Beyond Reasonable Doubt, had prompted the late
Sir Robert Muldoon to pardon Arthur Allan Thomas for the Crewe murders. Prime
Minister Helen Clark should read A City Possessed, he said.
Last night, Mr Goff said he believed the Eichelbaum report
was the end of the matter. Ms Hood and other concerned people were free to
pursue the proper process if they thought they had new information or evidence
that rendered the convictions unsafe.
Even if he read the book he could never as Minister of
Justice simply issue an edict saying he now disagreed with the ministerial
inquiry he had ordered.
"If I had the time I would be quite interested in
reading Lynley Hood's book but I've got one or two other things to do," he
said.
Two appeal courts and a former Chief Justice who had the
assistance of two eminent experts had considered the convictions safe, he said.
Canterbury University law lecturer Cynthia Hawes, who
reviewed the book for The Press, and Otago law faculty dean Mark Henagan have
raised renewed doubts about the case, and similar reviews have been published
in other newspapers and journals.
Professor Henagan said he planned to gather all the reviews
of the book and send them to Mr Goff.
Melbourne barrister Ian Freckelton said in a review in the
New Zealand Law Journal that "better should have been done early in the
sorry tale".