The Dominion Post
August 7 2003

Bizarre and shameful
Letter to the Editor
by Martin Bond, Brooklyn

Could you have quite missed the point of the ever-growing unease about the outcome of the Christchurch Civic Creche case (Editorial, August 5), and are you suggesting that a compliant citizenry should connive with its legal system in the jailing of an innocent man?

This case has taught us a lot about our society, little of it very creditable. An exception to that has been the growing number of thinking and law-abiding citizens who are developing a contempt for the justice system and are speaking up about it -- a worrying situation, as the tone of your editorial attests, but an understandable one, surely.

This case went awry from the start over the issue of admissibility of evidence. Having then produced an inept outcome, the system, in the person of Justice Minister Phil Goff, now conveniently hides behind a legal nicety.

There will be no new evidence, as Mr Goff well knows, nor do we need it. What evidence we have now, but which the jury did not have, points unerringly to Peter Ellis' innocence.

At every stage of this bizarre and shameful affair, the justice system has been found wanting. It failed in vigilance. It has closed ranks, as have others, to protect its own. It now maintains a lofty refusal to right a manifest wrong. The justice system has failed in its integrity.