|
The Dominion Post
July 22, 2002
Crèche 'nightmare' returns
by David McLoughlin
Former Christchurch
Civic Crèche supervisor Gaye Davidson says the reopening of the child
abuse case a decade on is a nightmare that she can barely believe.
Police want to talk to Ms Davidson as well as childcare worker Peter Ellis
about fresh allegations of abuse dating from the time Ellis worked at the crèche
from 1986 till 1991.
Ms Davidson said last night that detectives had visited her Christchurch home while she was out on
Thursday and Friday last week wanting her to arrange a meeting with them.
They left their business cards, but her partner Murray had found them and not shown them to
her.
"I heard on Wednesday night about the police visiting Peter then and I
got so frightened I was a wreck," she said. "Murray hid the cards because of how scared
I was, he didn't want me getting upset even more."
He gave them to her on Saturday after news broke of the police visit to
Ellis.
Ellis was convicted in 1993 of 16 charges of abusing pre-schoolers at the crèche.
He was sentenced to 10 years' jail and freed on automatic parole in February
2000. He has always maintained his innocence.
Ms Davidson and three other women crèche workers were also arrested
and charged with taking part in the alleged abuse with Ellis. They were sent
for trial but discharged just before Ellis's trial began.
The women have also maintained that no children were abused at the crèche
by them, Ellis or anyone else.
The new police move has come just as Dunedin
author Lynley Hood has won the prestige Montana Medal for non-fiction in the
Montana New Zealand Book Awards for her book on the case, A City Possessed.
It is believed the new allegations have come from a person now aged about 20
who attended the crèche as a pre-schooler and has been in therapy for
many years.
Ms Davidson said the detectives wanted her to go to an interview at their
police station, but she would not. "They know where I am, they can come
to me."
Police have not approached two of the other women, Marie Keys and Debbie
Gillespie. The fourth, Jan Buckingham, died in 2000.
"It seems to be Peter and me this time," Ms Davidson said. "I
have absolutely no idea who has made these allegations, or even what they
are. I'm totally stunned. I have just been getting my life back together and
this happens."
Ms Hood said yesterday that the Government should establish a royal
commission chaired by an overseas judge to undertake a full inquiry into what
happened in the Civic case.
She said the commission should be similar to South Africa's Truth and
Reconciliation Commission which investigated the apartheid era by offering
freedom from prosecution in return for open disclosure of crimes.
"It needs to be all brought out into the open in a forum where everyone
involved can say what happened without fear of being sued or having to pay
compensation," Ms Hood said. "There has been no accountability by
the police, welfare and other people who drove this case."
She said she was sceptical of how the police kept raising the possibility of
further charges each time some major event questioning the original case
occurred. It had happened when her book was published last year, now it had
happened when the book won an award.
|
