Dominion Post
June 23 2003
Ex-judge joins call for Civic Creche abuse probe
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 tomorrow after a ceremony attended by many of the women creche workers who lost their jobs or were arrested during
the abuse controversy. Creche worker Peter Ellis was
found guilty in 1993 of abusing children and sentenced to 10 years' jail.
Most such ceremonies take place on the steps of Parliament, but Speaker
Jonathan Hunt has given permission for it to be held in a select committee
room, officially because the weather might be bad.
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 the backing of a High Court judge, who was on the bench during the
years of the 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 tomorrow.
Sitting Labour MPs were advised by chief whip David
Benson-Pope not to sign the petition, but transsexual Wairarapa
MP Georgina Beyer has signed it.
Former creche supervisor Gaye Davidson will be among
several former staff attending tomorrow's ceremony. She and Lynley
Hood have been asked to speak there.
Mr 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, Mr Ellis was convicted in 1993
of 16 charges of abusing pre-schoolers at the creche.
The Court of Appeal twice turned down appeals by Mr
Ellis. A 2001 report for Justice Minister Phil Goff by former chief justice Sir
Thomas Eichelbaum said Mr
Ellis had failed "by a distinct margin" to prove his innocence.
After being asked about the petition, Mr Goff said
recently that he retained an open mind on the case but wanted "new
evidence" before he could reopen it.
Mrs Rich said the petition would be hard to ignore
because of the standing of the legal, political and other public figures who
had signed it.
"This is not about Peter Ellis, it is about the integrity of the justice
system," she said.