North and South
January 2002
(publication
date December 10, 2001)
Letters
Page 12
At Last!
Thank you for
November’s article by Lauren Quaintance on the Peter Ellis sex abuse
investigation at the Christchurch Civic Creche.
I am a retired
educational psychologist with an increasing sense of concern and dismay at the
outcomes so far and am pleased to see the justified publicity given to Lynley
Hood’s new book A City Possessed.
I wrote to Paul
East, the then Attorney General, in June 1995, recommending an independent
public inquiry examining all the relevant factors.
Since that date
there have been numerous legally-based inquiries or reviews, but none in my
opinion has come up with anything that has addressed all the relevant factors.
I must now say
after my immersion in Hood’s book that I am starting to change my mind. Here at last is the inquiry I have been
seeking. I wanted an independent
inquiry and that is what I’ve got. I wanted the examination of all relevant
factors, and I got that too. I can’t believe my luck.
But in all
seriousness, this is a tome of massive documentation and singular excellence
which should be studied in depth by all involved parties. I have no doubt this
book will be the centrepiece of this case as it moves forward.
Rotorua