The Herald
August 4 2003
Testimonies not new evidence, says Goff
by Mathew Dearnaley and NZPA
Justice
Minister Phil Goff says he has legal advice that previously unpublished
testimonies of children in the Peter Ellis paedophile case do not justify
another inquiry.
Millionaire publisher Barry Colman paid more than $20,000 for an advertisement
in yesterday's Sunday Star-Times containing testimonies, some of which were not
played to the jury that convicted Ellis in 1993 of molesting children in his
care.
He says he will put entire interview transcripts from the case, which led to
seven years in jail for the former
But Mr Goff said last night that the Crown Law Office assured him all tapes and
transcripts were made available to defence lawyers for cross-examination
purposes before the jury convicted Ellis.
He said he sought an opinion from Crown Law after receiving late last week an
advance copy of yesterday's advertisement, and was told it contained no new
evidence.
The two-page spread, which asks whether Ellis is a child molester or victim of
a witch-hunt, includes transcripts of some interviews by Child, Youth and
Family staff which were not played to the jury
These include a claim in October 1992, by a 6-year-old boy referred to as B,
that he and other youngsters were hung in cages from a ceiling by Ellis'
mother.
That was the boy's fifth interview and was in stark evidence to CYF's first interview with him, five months earlier, in
which the advertisement said that "all B could come up with was a memory
of Ellis cleaning him up on the creche changing table".
Excerpts from that interview were played to the jury.
Mr Goff said that although the trial judge ruled against playing transcripts of
claims which did not lead to charges against Ellis, the jury was well aware
"that some of the material was bizarre and fanciful".
But he said an international expert recognised as such even by pro-Ellis author
Lynley Hood assured former chief justice Sir Thomas Eichelbaum in his
ministerial review of the case that the presence of "bizarre
elements" was not in itself proof that all of a child's evidence was
tainted.
The minister said Sir Thomas supported findings of two Court of Appeal panels
in concluding that Ellis' supporters fell well short of demonstrating that his
convictions were unsafe.
Mr Goff said he would be happy to refer any genuinely new evidence back to the
appeal judges but it was not for ministers nor
newspaper publishers to determine whether people were innocent or guilty.
Mr Colman - publisher of the National Business Review - said yesterday that he
had widespread public support for his advertisement.
"I've had more than a dozen phone calls, and every one of them has been
positive about what I have done.
"It's been quite amazing.
"A lot of people have been congratulatory and said the transcripts were a
real eye-opener.
"Generally people have had no idea what went on, so this has been
heartening."