Sunday Star Times
July 20, 2003

Get the facts straight
Letter to the Editor
by Colleen Waugh (Auckland)


Instead of parroting that Peter Ellis is guilty because various trials and appeals said so, and making vague allegations, Debbie Kean would benefit from knowing at least the basics of our justice system and the facts of the case.

No one I know of, other than Phil Goff, called for a ministerial inquiry. Many people are denigrating that inquiry because it was a hopelessly limited travesty.

That many are calling for a Royal Commission of Inquiry, in which the full range of issues could be properly examined under oath, reflects the level of public concern.

The process which convicted Ellis has major systemic flaws. The "psychological evidence" produced by "experts" was filtered, distorted and misused. Physical and medical evidence was ignored or absent. The children involved have grown up wrongly believing they were abused. The "experts" who gave them this burden still practice.

In the face of such profound matters, Kean would have us believe the children. In that case, let us believe everything all the children said, not just conveniently selected parts. Unlike earlier examinations, a Royal Commission would hear everything.