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Otago Daily Times
February 21, 2002
Phil
Goff and the Ellis case
Peter Ellis served nearly seven years in jail, of a
10-year sentence, for "crimes" that are about as valid as those
that condemned 17th-century witches. The Christchurch creche worker was convicted in
1993 on 13 charges of abusing children in his care. He has always maintained
his innocence and insists that he will not rest until his name has been
cleared.
Despite current Justice Minister Phil Goff's squeamishness at even jabbing
the case with a stick, the legal machinery that rolled over Mr Ellis, causing
collateral damage to four innocent co-workers at the creche, might yet come
to his rescue.
The wide and long-standing public scepticism about the bizarre case has won
another significant supporter, the New Zealand Law Journal. . .
On top of the meticulous research and astute criticisms in the recently
published tome, A City Possessed: The Christchurch Civic Creche Case ,
by Dunedin scientist Lynley Hood, the quiet but steady campaign to absolve Mr
Ellis - and completely clear the names of creche supervisor Gaye Davidson,
and workers Marie Keys, the late Janice Buckingham and Deborah Gillespie - is
building to such heights that Mr Goff will be unable to ignore it much
longer.
The case tore the community apart and destroyed lives, victims all of them -
both the falsely accused and the children, and their bewildered and pained
families. It was a massive price to pay to advance a piece of flawed feminist
dogma that all men are rapists and that all such complainants must be
believed.
(Daily News, Feb 20 2002)
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