http://www.nbr.co.nz/home/column_article.asp?id=6304&cid=8&cname=News
National Business Review
June 25 2003
$100,000 reward offered for new information in the matter of Peter Ellis
The publisher of The National Business
Review, Barry Colman, has announced that he is offering a $100,000 reward
for substantial new information in the Peter Ellis case.
The reward addresses Justice Minister Phil Goff's contention that without new
evidence he is unwilling to order a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the case,
widely considered in
Peter Ellis was convicted in 1993 of 16 counts of sexual abuse of pre-schoolers
in a
Mr Colman says the case -- including much of the evidence -- was
"disastrously biased" against Mr Ellis.
"Some of the material [presented by the children] is quite
preposterous," Mr Colman said in a radio interview today. He believes that
had the jury been told of all the allegations against Mr Ellis, which included
fantastical adventures and bizarre happenings that were clearly the product of
imagination, the jury would not have found him guilty.
Instead, Mr Colman says, the jury was presented only with those bits of
evidence that appeared plausible.
Mr Colman was one of more than 800 community and civic leaders who signed a
petition calling for the government to convene a Royal Commission of Inquiry
into the case. Justice Minister Phil Goff denied the petitioners, saying the
case had been adequately reviewed and that he would not consider such a move in
the absence of new evidence.
National MP Don Brash, who presented the petition along with National MP
Katherine Rich, said on Holmes last night that Mr Goff did not need new
evidence to proceed.
The petition drive was sparked by Lynley Hood's explosive book on the case, A
City Possessed, in the writing of which she says she
spent over 19,000 hours examining the facts and trial. Ms Hood says it is time
for new action on the case.
"There is now broad public and professional consensus that in the
Christchurch Civic Crèche case the justice system failed and failed
catastrophically," she said.
Mr Colman says he hopes "this sort of offer will flush out some new
evidence" that Mr Goff will not be able to ignore. Since making the
announcement of the reward this morning, Mr Colman says he has already been
contacted by three people with what may be new evidence.
Mr Colman says the effort to convene the Royal Commission of Inquiry should not
devolve into a political exercise and that he hopes the multi-partisan spirit
behind the petition will continue.
He also says he does not believe the search for new evidence should involve
going back and "bothering the children" again, but that new
information is likely to surface from among those who were associated with the
crèche in a professional capacity.
"This young man has really been a scapegoat," Mr Colman said.
He plans to present any new information to the petition organisers, including
Ms Hood, for evaluation about its importance. On their positive assessment, he
says, he'll pay out the reward.
Parties with such information are invited to call 09-307-1629.
Among the hundreds who signed the petition are former prime ministers David
Lange and Mike Moore, Queen's Counsels Nigel Hampton and Stuart Grieve, law
professors John Burrows, John Prebble and Mark Henaghan, writers Keri Hulme,
Maurice Gee and Witi Ihimaera,
Dunedin Mayor Sukhi Turner and media personalities
including Listener editor Finlay Macdonald, columnists
Chris Trotter and Frank Haden, and Metro founder Warwick Roger. NBR editors
were approached but did not sign because newspaper policy precludes
participation in petitions of a personal nature.
Signs of political involvement came early in the petition drive when Labour
ministers were told by the whip not to sign. Despite that, Labour MPs David
Parker and Georgina Beyer signed.