Daily News
Retired High Court judge backs petition
by David McLoughlin
A retired
High Court judge is among the latest public figures to back a petition calling
for a royal commission into the Christchurch Civic Creche child abuse case.
National Party MPs Katherine Rich and Don Brash will present the petition to
Parliament today after a ceremony attended by many of the women creche workers
who lost their jobs or were arrested during the abuse controversy, where fellow
worker Peter Ellis was jailed for 10 years.
Such ceremonies usually take place on the steps of Parliament, but Speaker Jonathan
Hunt has given permission for it to be held inside in a select committee room,
officially because the weather might be bad outside.
Former Labour prime ministers David Lange and Mike
Moore are among more than 100 public figures who signed the petition, which Mrs
Rich and Dr Brash started after
Many of the petition signatories are senior members of the legal profession,
but having one from a High Court judge, who was on the bench during the years
of Ellis' trial and unsuccessful appeals, is likely to be significant.
Mrs Rich said yesterday that the name of the former judge would be made public
when the petition was presented today.
Sitting Labour MPs were advised by chief whip David Benson-Pope not to sign the
petition, but transsexual Wairarapa MP Georgina Beyer has.
Former Civic supervisor Gaye Davidson will be among several former staff
attending today's ceremony. She and Lynley Hood have been asked to speak there.
Ellis, who was paroled in 2000 after always protesting his innocence, said he
would not attend. He had never met Mrs Rich or Dr Brash and did not want anyone
to think he was behind their petition. He was very pleased that his former co-workers
would be at Parliament and hoped justice would eventually win.
In possibly the most controversial case since the 1970 murder conviction of
Arthur Allan Thomas, Ellis was convicted in 1993 of 16 charges of abusing
pre-schoolers at the creche.
The Court of Appeal twice turned down appeals by Ellis. A 2001 report for
Justice Minister Phil Goff by former chief justice Sir Thomas Eichelbaum said
Ellis had failed "by a distinct margin" to prove his innocence.