National Business Review
August 4 2003
"Toddler Testimonies" dominates talkback
Discussion about verbatim
transcripts of interviews with several of the children at the centre of the
Peter Ellis case has dominated the talk back airwaves since being published in
the Sunday Star Times.
The transcripts were published after
the Crown Law Office said bids by Child, Youth and Family (CYF) to block them
would probably not succeed in court.
The transcripts appeared as a two
page advertising spread underwritten by publisher Barry Colman.
Mr Colman has pointed out that the
transcripts contain much material that the jury in the case did not see or hear
and that once readers understood how the testimony used in the 10-year-old case
was developed from the interviews, the public would understand how seriously
flawed was the case made by the Crown against Mr Ellis.
Most talk back radio programmes
devoted time to the topic beginning on Sunday and the response from listeners
who had read the transcripts tended to show strong support for the decision to
publish the transcripts and, often, amazement that the jury had not been
allowed access to the interview tapes -- since apparently gone missing from
Crown custody -- on which the transcripts were based.
Mr Colman was a telephone guest on
several of the programmes and said he would make all of the documents available
online beginning sometime this week. He said he was taking that step in
response to claims by some that he had selected transcripts that put the Crown
prosecution into the worst possible light.
According to the Dominion Post, Mr Colman, who has never
met Ellis or any of the children, said on the eve of their publication that the
interviews would show Ellis was an innocent victim of a hysterical witch hunt.
Mr Colman said he belongs to a large and growing group that wants the
government to establish a commission of inquiry to open the case and take
factors such as the transcripts into account.
"You can see (from the
transcripts) how these children became more and more refined, from having no
complaint against Ellis whatsoever to be talking in fantasy terms," he
said.
"The public will see how much
gibberish these toddlers of three or four trying to remember things. It's crazy
stuff. They talk of trapdoors in the houses that don't exist, of being pulled
up in cages by Peter's mother."
One of the children, identified as
"B", indicated during an initial interview that all he could recall
was being changed by Mr Ellis, a routine practice. After a series of leading
interviews, however, he came up with stories that included claims that he and
other youngsters were hanged in cages from a ceiling by Ellis' mother.
The transcripts would show that some
children were interviewed up to six times, and they would show that the jury
heard interviews that suited the prosecution, Mr Colman said.
Justice Minister Phil Goff says,
however, that there is nothing new in the transcripts and that videotapes of
the interviews on which they are based were made available to the Ellis defence
for cross examination purposes while the case was at trial.
He said he has legal advice that
nothing in the transcripts warrants establishing the special commission that Mr
Colman and others have been pushing for.
Mr Colman told reporters that there
had been strong support for his decision to publish, despite objections from
Commissioner for Children Roger McClay and CYF.
"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," he said.
Later this month, a petition signed
by more than 800 people calling for a Royal Commission of Inquiry will go
before a select committee hearing at Parliament.
Among other activities, Barry Colman
publishes The National Business Review.