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The Dominion
February 23 2002.
Goff to be briefed on Ellis sex case book
Justice
Minister Phil Goff, criticised for not having read Dunedin author Lynley
Hood's book on the Christchurch Civic Creche case, will get a departmental
briefing on what it says.
In a written response to an Official Information Act request, Mr Goff said he
had not asked for, nor been given, any written information about A City
Possessed.
The book says that a "moral panic" and parental hysteria led to
former creche worker Peter Ellis being sentenced to 10 years' jail in 1993
after he was "wrongly" found guilty of sexually abusing children at
the creche.
Mr Goff said he had had a discussion with Justice Ministry chief legal
counsel Val Sim about the book and would "be briefed further on what the
book discloses".
After it was published last October, Mr Goff repeatedly said he had not read
it. Hood, and Ellis supporters, criticised him for that.
Mr Goff said then that the final word for him on the case was the March 2001
report by former chief justice Sir Thomas Eichelbaum, who said Ellis had
failed by a distinct margin to prove his innocence.
Ellis, who was freed from jail in February 2000, has always maintained his
innocence. His supporters said the Eichelbaum inquiry's terms of reference
were too narrow.
After Sir Thomas's report was published, a secret report by another former
judge, Sir Thomas Thorp, was leaked. It canvassed much of the same material
as the Eichelbaum report but concluded that there was “serious doubt"
about the safety of Ellis's convictions.
Mr Goff's press secretary, John Tulloch, said yesterday that Mr Goff was not
refusing to read the book. He just did not have time to read a 600-page,
book.
A New Zealand Law Journal editorial published on Monday criticised the
Eichelbaum report and praised Hood for including all the witness statements
in her book.
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