The Daily News
June 12 2003
Ellis case too messy to sweep under the carpet
Editorial
As much
as the Government and the judiciary might wish it, the Ellis case is not going
to go away, says The Daily News.
It never was, even before a couple of the National Party's more energetic MPs,
Katherine Rich and Don Brash, adopted the cause no doubt for all the usual
reasons that motivate politicians, but perhaps also because they realise that
such widespread public disquiet can be a corrosive element in a country's
relationship with its police and courts.
People want finality in horrible crimes. Loose ends irritate. They lead to
unhealthy suspicions about other high-profile cases, like those of David Tamihere, David Bain and Scott Watson and others that will
sadly follow, and resurrect the disturbing memories of police-planted evidence
and the judicial errors in the notorious Arthur Allan Thomas trial.
Mrs Rich and Dr Brash have begun a petition calling for a Royal Commission of
Inquiry into the conviction of Peter Hugh McGregor Ellis, jailed for 10 years
in 1993 on 16 charges of sexually abusing seven children under his care at the
Christchurch Civic Creche.
The two MPs have launched a campaign to gather the supportive signatures of 100
prominent New Zealanders quickly getting 75, including an impressive two former
prime ministers, several QCs and law professors, and a list of well-known
public and literary figures.
Such distinguished and perceptive people are not easily persuaded aboard
bandwagons. Their shared discomfort about the judicial safety of Ellis' various
hearings a jury trial, two Court of Appeal reviews and a ministerial inquiry is
echoed throughout the country.
Nor is the public unease because of any exceptional qualities displayed by
Peter Ellis himself.
Almost the reverse apart from his steadfast, but hardly surprising, protestations
of innocence since the bizarre inquiry hit the headlines a decade ago.
At the time,
Increasingly hysterical creche parents interrogated
their children and exchanged reports long before the police became involved.
Detectives could find no physical or scientific evidence of abuse, no adult
witnesses, no trapdoors, tunnels, cages and
photographs, as alleged and no murdered boy called Andrew.
Four of the 13 women who worked in the creche were
also charged and tried, but acquitted and compensated.
Three Ellis charges were dropped on appeal. One conscience-stricken child
witness later admitted she told the lies her interviewers seemed to want.
It is time to accept that no justice system is infallible, and the Ellis case
simply too messy to sweep under the carpet.