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The Otago Daily Times
June 29, 2002
Winning author calls for inquiry
by Jon Bassett
Controversial
Dunedin author Lynley Hood used yesterday's announcement she had won a
prestigious Montana New Zealand Book Award to again call for a royal
commission into the Christchurch
crèche case.
A City Possessed: The Christchurch Crèche Case (Longacre Press, Dunedin) won the
history section of the competition and a $5000 prize for Ms Hood.
Ms Hood's book is now in line for the Montana Medal for non-fiction and the
accompanying $10,000 prize, to be announced next month.
She spent seven years investigating the case, eventually questioning the way
the legal system handled sexual abuse claims surrounding former crèche worker
Peter Ellis, and his guilt.
Yesterday, Ms Hood said there had been no changes to the issues raised in the
book.
"ACC therapists still use techniques which produce false abuse cases,
investigators' interviews can't tell the difference between true and false,
and police are misconducting inquiries," she said.
A broad-based inquiry was needed, similar to South Africa's Truth and
Reconciliation Commission.
The award's judges said Ms Hood's book was "extraordinary . . . it could
not be ignored".
"Hood has put new events into a much wider context . . . about the
nature of modern New
Zealand society," they said.
Society had "banded around" political correctness until open
discussion of sexual abuse had been silenced, Ms Hood said.
She also blasted the judiciary.
"There's been numerous times when Parliament has said a mistake [by the
court] has to be examined, but the court often then sets a precedent saying
that does not need to happen."
A spokesman for Justice Minister Phil Goff said Ms Hood was welcome to write
to the minister with the substance of her inquiry request.
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