Stuff
July 4 2003

Reward offer in Ellis case prompts two leads
NZPA

Publisher Barry Colman says his offer of $100,000 for new information on the Peter Ellis case has prompted two promising leads from people directly involved in the case.

Christchurch Civic Creche child worker Peter Ellis was convicted of child abuse and sentenced to 10 years' jail in 1993.

He spent 6½ years in prison and was freed in 2000, having always maintained his innocence.

A high profile petition has called for a Commission of Inquiry, but Justice Minister Phil Goff has said that an inquiry isn't justified without new evidence.

Mr Colman said there had been a "steady stream of calls" since he offered the reward for new evidence a week ago.

"So far 10 people have responded to the appeal for fresh material on the case and two of these are being actively pursued as potentially promising," Mr Colman said in an e-mail.

The two leads might be enough to justify the inquiry. Mr Colman said inquiries into the leads would be completed in about 10 days.

None of the callers had indicated any interest in the reward money and one had said they wanted to "get this off my conscience".

"One of the reasons for making a money offer was that many of the people involved in the affair received $10,000 lump sum payments from the ACC for "suffering" during the episode. These people will now have no financial reason for not coming forward."

Mr Colman said he would hand on the results of his inquiries to the petition organisers.

One of the organisers, National MP Katherine Rich, said she was looking forward to getting the information.

She believed those coming forward were trying to put a past injustice right and were not interested in the reward.

The reward would be offered for one month, and any information that came in would be assessed by the author of a book on the case, A City Possessed, Lynley Hood, to see whether it was new evidence or not.