Christchurch, New Zealand.
Local News
By Guy Grant
A
commission of inquiry along the lines of South Africa's truth and
reconciliation commission may be one way of dealing with the ongoing debate
over the Christchurch Civic Creche case, says author Lynley Hood.
The
Dunedin author published her book, A City Possessed, on the high-profile
case earlier this year.
Former
childcare worker Peter Ellis was found guilty on charges of sexually abusing
children at the Christchurch creche between 1986 and 1992 in a much-debated
trial, and was released in February this year after serving two-thirds of his
10-year sentence.
Ellis
has always maintained his innocence.
Giving
a key note address to the 5th Annual New Zealand Early Childhood Research
Network Symposium held in Christchurch this week, Ms Hood said she had not
written the book as an advocate for Ellis.
"My
aim was to find out what had happened and why.
But,
invited to speak at the symposium as a researcher, she said that following her
seven years' work on her book, it was now "pretty clear" to her that
Ellis was innocent.
She
believed a pardon was the legal option for Ellis, but there was also "a
strong argument for a commission of inquiry."
This
could be something along the lines of the truth and reconciliation commission
run in South Africa in the wake of the end of apartheid in that country.
In
that forum, everyone got to tell their stories.
Hood,
the author of books on subjects including Minnie Dean, said she liked writing
about controversial issues.
"Deep
and bitter disputes have always intrigued me." She said the seeds of A
City Possessed had taken root when she wrote her book about Minnie Dean.
She
had been interested in the "moral panic" that surrounded the
perceived maltreatment of children.'
But
"it was only when New Zealand's biggest child sexual abuse case hit the
headlines that I began to wonder what was going on."
Hood
likened modern day, fears about ritual child abuse to the witch hunts of the
16th and 17th centuries, and the parallels to the 16th and 17th century
witch-hunts were "striking."
She
said the Civic Creche case was "by far the most controversial case"
she had ever encountered.
But,
after such a mammoth project, she was now enjoying not writing a book at the
moment.