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The Press
April 24, 2002
Police pursue abuse claim to two others
by Yvonne Martin
Police
are widening their investigation into the latest complaint laid against Peter
Ellis to cover two other people the complainant claims also abused him.
A young Christchurch
man laid a formal complaint in January 2001 alleging that he was sexually
abused by Ellis and others when he was a boy at the Christchurch Civic
Childcare Centre.
The complainant, now 20, was not party to the original police inquiries in
1992-93 which resulted in Ellis being sentenced to 10 years jail for his
conviction on 13 charges of abusing children in his care.
Police say they have obtained a legal opinion suggesting that the similar
nature of the allegations made the possibility of fresh charges being laid
against Ellis unlikely, given the fact that he had already served a sentence.
Police child abuse unit manager Detective Sergeant Chris Power said the
police were guided by that legal opinion, but other people may be criminally
liable in the case.
"He (the complainant) has alleged that two others were involved,"
Mr Power said.
"An important part of our investigation will be establishing their identity."
Mr Power said that once inquiries were completed, the unit would make a
recommendation to police managers about whether to proceed with legal action
against any other individual.
The family of the 20-year-old complainant, who recently married, have been
advised by police not to comment.
Kathryn Johnston, co-ordinator of the Support Network for Parents and
Caregivers of Sexually Abused Children who is supporting the family, said
they were frustrated over the time the case was taking.
"They are trying to be patient. They have been reassured that there is
an ongoing process, but it is obviously an incredibly slow one," she
said.
Dunedin author
Lynley Hood, whose book A City Possessed called into question the safety of
Ellis' convictions, said it was time for police to "put up or shut
up".
"All this innuendo is just sleaze tactics on the part of the
police," she said.
"Isn't it about time they responded to the issues raised in A City
Possessed instead of trying this underhand way of reviving the case?"
The book said that "moral panic" and parental hysteria led to Ellis
being sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in 1993.
He was freed in February 2000 after serving two-thirds of his sentence.
Ellis called on Justice Minister Phil Goff in February to launch a new
inquiry into his convictions after the New Zealand Law Journal highlighted
flaws in the way his case had been handled.
Mr Goff said earlier that two appeal courts and a former Chief Justice had
considered the convictions safe.
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