The Press
June 23 2003
Ex-judge backs new Ellis 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 investigation in which fellow worker Peter Ellis was jailed for 10
years.
Most such ceremonies 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 the 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 is 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.
Former Civic Creche supervisor Gaye Davidson will be
among several former staff attending tomorrow's ceremony.
She and Lynley Hood have been asked to speak.
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 civic 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.
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.