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Waikato Times
February 16 2002
Ellis case shows legal flaws: paper
NZPA
The New Zealand Law Journal has attacked the legal system's
handling of the Peter Ellis case, using Dunedin author Lynley Hood's book A
City Possessed as a launching point for its attack.
In an editorial to be published on Monday, it says former chief justice Sir
Thomas Eichelbaum's judgment when leading a ministerial inquiry into the case
was either wrongly directed or at fault.
Journal editor Bernard Robertson calls for the repeal of part of the Evidence
Act, questions whether the appeals process can deliver justice and alleges courts
have been "conned" by psychologists.
It criticises the police investigation of the Christchurch Civic Creche case,
in which creche worker Ellis was convicted of child abuse, saying "it
suffered from a clear fault which was that it was driven by a junior officer
with a bee in his bonnet".
Mr Ellis was released from prison in 2000 after serving seven years. His
conviction was twice referred to the Court of Appeal and was the subject of a
ministerial inquiry.
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