The Dominion Post
August 7, 2003

Evocation of McCarthy era
Letter to the Editor
by Chris Norman, Island Bay

I do not think I have ever disagreed more with an editorial in your newspaper than I do with that on the Peter Ellis case (August 5).

The publication of the children's statements last weekend was very much in the public interest because it is the only evidence there was -- there was nothing else. Because this evidence was from children, it was allowed to be edited.

The Crown then did that, carefully "tailoring" it with one end in mind: initially the conviction of all the creche workers, later the conviction of Ellis, the only man.

This tailoring of evidence is exactly the method used in the Communist show trials in the 1950s. It was also a method used by United States Senator Joe McCarthy in the Communist "witch hunts" he conducted in the US during the same period. Needless to say the outcomes were just as predictable as the Ellis trial. Conviction.

Justice Minister Phil Goff is not resolute in trying to keep the lid on this disgraceful miscarriage of justice; he simply demonstrates that he is a member of the fraternity.