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Sunday Star Times
July 21, 2002
Just sort it out, Ellis tells sex case cops
by Kim Knight, and Deidre Mussen
Peter Ellis says renewed police investigations into historic
allegations of sex abuse at the Christchurch Civic Crèche have made him feel
like he's on a bungy rope.
Two detectives visited Ellis' Christchurch
home on Wednesday to arrange a meeting with him and his lawyer, Judith
Ablett-Kerr, QC, at the police station. And former creche supervisor Gaye
Davidson yesterday discovered police calling cards on her doorstep from their
visit on Thursday.
Ellis, 44, said police would not give him details of the allegation or who
laid it, only that it was an historical allegation.
Ellis was released on automatic parole in February 2000 after serving seven
years of a 10-year sentence after being convicted in 1993 on 13 counts of
abusing crèche children. He worked there between 1986 and 1991.
While he wasn't looking forward to the police meeting, he was keen to have
the matter resolved. "The best way of describing it is like being on a
bungy and you have to eventually go over the side. Even if you've been given
two to four years to do it, you've eventually got to do it. If they can clear
it up, if they can sort it out and if they can put a full-stop to it, no,
it's not a waste of taxpayers' money."
He said for the last two years, every time there had been supportive
publicity for him, allegations by the same person had come up.
Last night, Lynley Hood's book about the civic crèche case A City Possessed, won the $10,000
non-fiction prize at the Montana
awards and the readers' choice awards, drawing 40% more votes than her
nearest rival.
She said the latest allegation - simply an old one recycled - was a sign of
how desperate the police were to inflate a totally discredited case.
"The police have got to face up to the concerns in my book which are
pretty serious about the police conduct."
Ellis said he wanted to fire off a false allegation complaint against his
accuser.
He doubted he would be arrested over the latest allegation.
"If it happens, then it happens but I don't think the members of the
public would sit quiet about it."
The two detectives had visited his mother's Leithfield home earlier last
Wednesday, unaware he had shifted, which had distressed her, Ellis said.
Ellis believed the surge of interest in sex abuse in Christchurch, such as within the order of
St John of God, was behind renewed interest in his case.
He said Davidson would be devastated that police wanted to speak with her.
She was unavailable for comment last night.
Ellis, who has maintained his innocence throughout, wants a royal commission
of inquiry on his case. "I don't want a pardon because I didn't do it. I
want an apology from the government."
Detective Inspector Rob Pope, the officer in charge of Canterbury CIB, would
not confirm police visited Ellis and wouldn't comment on speculation about
links between investigations and the high profile of Hood's book clearing
Ellis of wrongdoing. "You're drawing connections there which I can't
quite see myself."
Montana
judging panel convenor Witi Ihimaera said Hood's book on the Ellis case was
an "extraordinary" book which could not be ignored.
"With great tenacity Hood leads us to an understanding of how the events
in Christchurch
could have occurred. The courage of Dr Hood in pursuing the book's
publication has given us a narrative that, for all its controversy, makes it
a stand-out, not just in this year but in any year."
Craig Marriner won the $15,000 best fiction book category for his debut novel
Stonedogs.
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