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The Press
June 29 2002
Prize revives crèche controversy
Author
Lynley Hood used yesterday's announcement that she had won a prestigious
Montana New Zealand Book Award to again call for a Royal Commission into the
Christchurch creche case.
A City Possessed: The Christchurch Creche Case (Longacre Press), won the
history section of the competition and a $5000 prize for Hood.
Her 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.
Hood said the issues raised in the book had still not been dealt with.
"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.
The award's judges said the 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 "bandied around" political correctness until open
discussion of sexual abuse had been silenced, 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," she said.
A spokesman for Justice Minister Phil Goff said Hood was welcome to write to
the Minister with the substance of her inquiry request.
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