The Press
Inquiry sought
It is
easy to forget that many lives were turned upside down by the Christchurch
Civic Creche case. Sometimes, Gaye Davidson feels like one of the forgotten
victims of the Christchurch Civic Creche case, but she herself can never have
the luxury of forgetting.
For about 12 years now, the former creche supervisor has been haunted by her
experience in the bizarre and troubling case centred on the city council-owned
creche in
Today, she still finds herself fighting back the tears as she talks yet again
about her bitter experiences. "It doesn't take much for the tears or the
anger to surface," she admits.
Davidson is once more having to confront those
experiences as the debate over the case is revived by the latest petition
seeking a Royal Commission of Inquiry into it.
She is excited by the petition, but concerned that such an inquiry should be
all-encompassing. While the focus of the debate has been on the sole convicted
creche worker, Peter Ellis, and his continued protestations of innocence, she
points out that many other people were ensnared in the case and had their lives
damaged in various ways.
Few days pass when Davidson doesn't find herself ruminating on the injustice
she feels, of how she was accused of sexual abuse against one of the children
in her care, but of the charge being dropped, so depriving her and three of her
co-accused from ever clearing their names in court.
"It stopped our lives virtually, and we had to get through the horrific emotions
of being accused as child abusers."
Occasionally, in all that is said about the creche saga, the suggestion is made
that it is time for everyone to move on. But that is not an option Davidson
feels she has. "It's still a controlling factor in my life."
For years, she would go to bed at night in hope that she would wake up to the
news that it was all over, that someone had somehow determined finally and
officially that it was all a terrible mistake.
She has little appetite for the prospect of having to relive what went on in
1992 and beyond. But, "I would do it if I had to, for the inquiry."
It would be worth it, she says, for the lifting of the huge emotional burden
she is certain would result from an inquiry.
For Davidson is convinced that it could only go one way -- that its findings
would back up the conclusions of Lynley Hood in A City Possessed, that the
civic creche case was not about sexual abuse but about a moral panic fuelled by
the attitudes and theories of the day.
Davidson's former colleague Marie Keys and her husband, Roger, are similarly
convinced that Hood's book has pointed to the inevitable outcome if an inquiry
is ever achieved. Roger Keys was one of the principle agitators for such a
review of the case through the 1990s, but met the same resistance from the
State that is now being expressed about the latest campaign.
Marie Keys sums up their reluctance to get their hopes up this time: "I
would love for there to be an inquiry, the full inquiry, with all evidence
presented. But somehow, I'm not going to be holding my breath."
While the case has never left her, "you move on -- I'm happy with my life
now".
Davidson, too, is wary. "It got to the point a few months ago when I
thought, God, it's going to be the next generation before they know we have
been falsely accused."
She held high hopes when Hood's book first came out, but the lack of firm
action again left her despondent. News of the petition -- which she has no part
in and read of in the newspaper -- has her excited again. Her message to
Justice Minister Phil Goff, who has so far refused to accept there is a case
for another review, is that he should have "the strength and the
mana" to acknowledge the flaws.
Some have questioned what any inquiry would achieve so long after the event.
For Davidson, apart from a burden lifted, she sees serious questions of
accountability to be answered. "The people and organisations that drove it
have to be accountable for what they have done."
And she is convinced that as time has moved on, "the tide has turned ...
more and more of the community are aware of the wrongdoing".
Inquiry Sought
More than 10 years since the Christchurch Civic Creche case first emerged, with
its incredible allegations of child sexual abuse, the sordid saga remains
embedded in the city's fabric.
Rather than public concern waning with time, the latest development suggests it
is as strong as ever.
On Tuesday, in a remarkable display of that concern, a
petition calling for a full Royal Commission of Inquiry into the case, signed
by more than 100 leading New Zealanders, will go to Parliament.
It is Lynley Hood's 2001 book about the case, A City Possessed, which has
prompted the latest round of questioning about the way the 1992 investigations
of the creche were handled.
Those investigations led to the jailing of creche worker Peter Ellis. Ellis is
now free and maintains his innocence.
Four other creche workers -- supervisor Gaye Davidson, and support workers
Marie Keys, Jan Buckingham (now deceased), and Deborah Gillespie -- were also
charged but those charges never went to trial.
Supporters of the various accused, and others who are simply sceptical about
the allegations that emerged from the creche and the authorities' response,
have spent much of the last 11 years agitating for reviews and inquiries.
Various reviews have been allowed, but have been criticised as too narrow to
thoroughly investigate all that went on.
The Government maintains that Hood has
come up with nothing new to warrant a fresh inquiry. Today, The
Press features the comments of a small sample of the petition signatories,
along with the views of Davidson and Keys. The collective message is clear: the
creche case has created too much public unease to die away quietly.
Grahame
Sydney
Otago artist
"I
felt compelled to sign because I think it's a continuing travesty of justice.
It's quite extraordinary that the minister (Phil Goff) is so determinedly
turning his back on the evidence ... We all feel that he's either been given
extremely bad advice, which the book completely contradicts, or there is some
other reason ...
"Lynley has done something in this book which anyone who reads it will
realise is really beyond discussion any more ... I'm just one of those who feels
deeply uncomfortable."
John Prebble
Professor of law,
"I
read Lynley Hood's book and thought it a remarkable piece of work. It showed that the
verdicts weren't safe. The (Government's) response to Lynley Hood's book has
been that it doesn't raise any more facts and if and when more facts emerge,
possibly the Government will do something about it.
"The problem with that is that it fails to take into account that the
whole process of the case from start to finish has not examined the facts in
the way in which Lynley Hood has ... She has been able to examine the case and
take account both of all the facts and of contextual matters that others were
prevented from considering."
Michael Bassett
Former Labour Cabinet minister,
current member of Waitangi Tribunal, writer and historian
"I
followed the case when it first went to court ... Then I read a magazine
article in North and South -- I was pretty edgy about that, as was my wife. Then, of course, the
Lynley Hood book came out. So I'm frankly not convinced by the inquiries that
have taken place so far. I think it's high time there was a rather fuller
investigation into the thing, and a public one at that ...
" In my mind, there's far too much doubt
surrounding the whole thing. A good, thorough investigation outside of the sort
of cut and thrust of the courts is what's needed."
Stuart Grieve
Queen's Counsel,
Barrister of
"I
have as a criminal lawyer been involved in cases of this type. I read Lynley
Hood's book and was most impressed with it. I didn't put it in the category of
a lot of literature that comes out seeking new trials for people. This was in
my view a much more scholarly and academic work ...
"I think it raised a sufficient number of serious issues about the reliability,
objectivity, and general cogency of the whole inquiry, and to a lesser extent
of the trial process, that warrants investigation."
Barry Colman
National Business Review publisher,
of
"I
think there's a really huge disquiet among New Zealanders everywhere about what
happened in that trial. We have got a deep sense of unease about the entire
episode. That book has been an absolute revelation in this whole affair.
"I think the jury made the right decision (on the evidence that was before
it), but it simply wasn't told all the evidence. When we were told what went on
really, I don't think they would have come to that decision -- I don't think
anybody would have. It's just been a travesty of justice."
Sukhi
Turner
Mayor of
"I
signed because I read the book. I think the case that Lynley Hood has made is
very compelling ... I think that her theory about moral panic is quite valid
...
"It's very important for those who are making decisions to actually have
read the book. I believe there's an injustice done."