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Otago
Daily Times
August 20, 2003
Child victim says Ellis' backers wrong
NZPA
Christchurch: A child victim in the
Christchurch Civic Creche sex abuse case is angry about criticism sparked by
his first media interview.
Tom (not his real name) says Dunedin
author Lynley Hood is "just so wrong" in her belief former creche
worker Peter Ellis was an innocent man wrongly convicted.
Last Saturday, Tom and another complainant, Katrina (also a false name),
reaffirmed the guilt of former creche worker Peter Ellis in national
newspapers.
A decade ago, their evidence led to Ellis being convicted of 16 abuse
charges, three relating to Tom and four to Katrina.
Now 17, the pair said that despite debate about the case, they still firmly
believed they were abused by Ellis.
"I remember lots of it vividly," said Tom, who was nearly 3 when he
began attending the creche.
"I stand by everything I said when I was little. I didn't make anything
up."
Ms Hood, campaigning to overturn the Ellis convictions, said it was
"scandalous" that child complainants felt compelled to speak out
while the professionals involved in the case stayed silent.
"It's not the kids who should be fronting up and trying to defend what
happened. It's the interviewers, the therapists, the police, and the
prosecutors who should have known better. It's absolutely outrageous."
In A City Possessed, Ms Hood argues
that memories of abuse the children might genuinely believe to be true had
been induced by manipulative interviewing techniques.
Yesterday, Tom hit back.
"I am totally clear in remembering the abuse that the paedophile Peter
Ellis did to me," he said in a statement.
"I wasn't manipulated; you just don't imagine that sort of stuff. How
would Lynley Hood know what happened to me - she wasn't there. I was."
Tom's father said Ms Hood's comments were "a little bit below the belt".
"Our children find it upsetting when their integrity is called into
question. They're now not afraid to speak up and say their piece and we
support them in that."
Ms Hood is one of 140 high-profile New Zealanders to petition Parliament for
a Royal Commission of Inquiry.
The justice and electoral select committee will next month begin weighing
that call. -
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