The Press
January 12, 2002.
What are you mad about?
by Warwick Roger
Warwick Roger is
editor-at-large of North & South magazine
Over the
summer break I read A City Possessed, Lynley Hood's colossal work of
investigative journalism on the Christchurch Civic Crèche alleged child
sexual abuse case. It's for the most part heavy going in its minute detail,
but this is entirely necessary for Ms Hood to meticulously build up her
argument.
I'd like to think that I played a small part in the debate. In the mid-80s,
when I was editor of Metro magazine, I sensed that we were being sold a load
of old rope by the rapidly expanding sex-abuse industry being driven by the
likes of Hillary Haines/Lapsley and political lesbian Miriam Jackson/Saphira,
who had insinuated themselves into positions of power and influence, not
always with the benefit of sound research, and with the help of an
unquestioning media.
This was the time of the infamous "one in four girls will be molested by
the time they are 18".
Metro's Carroll du Chateau did splendid and important work exposing the
machinations of an industry based largely on spurious statistics and
fear-mongering.
What happened to Peter Ellis - guilty of nothing more than being a flamboyant
nancy boy - was the' inevitable result of a
collective insanity that descended on Christchurch
to produce a climate of inevitability that someone would have to be
sacrificed.
Remember: no evidence of the Great Christchurch Child Pornography Ring was
ever discovered. No evidence of physical injury to the crèche children was
ever found. No-one ever saw the alleged abuse take place.
It is impossible to read Ms Hood's book and not get the feeling that Christchurch ought to
be thoroughly ashamed of itself over the matter of the civic crèche case.
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