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The
Press
August 22, 2003
Creche children's conduct 'bizarre'
by Anna Claridge
A Christchurch child
behavioural worker claims she spotted bizarre behaviour trends in Christchurch civic
creche children well before creche worker Peter Ellis was arrested for abuse.
Judy Berger says she worked with 11 former creche children once they reached
school age – none of whom testified in the Ellis trial.
All displayed, she said, symptoms of sexual abuse, including a fear of going
to the toilet, and being scared of their birthdays because they claimed Ellis
had said their penis would burst into flames on their birthday "if they
told".
Ellis was convicted of child abuse at the creche and sentenced to 10 years
jail in 1993.
He spent almost seven years in prison and was freed in 2000, and now has
political backing for a Commission of Inquiry into the case.
But Mrs Berger says that backing is unwarranted, and the children she dealt
with bore scars of abuse that "could not be made up".
"Most of them had a problem going to the toilet and also with eating. I
remember one little boy would only go into the toilets as far as the
hand-basin and would pee in that because he was too scared to go any further.
Most of them would put food in their mouths and just hold it there, not
swallowing.
"I was most puzzled by these kids because they all had nice parents, and
older siblings who weren't troubled. I was looking through the files and
realised the common denominator was they had all been through the
creche."
Mrs Berger was one of three behaviour management workers in the Shirley
Guidance Unit based at Shirley Primary School between 1990 and late 1994.
The workers were contracted to cover all Christchurch schools, and were called in
when a child was displaying "unusual or bizarre behaviour".
Each worker saw up to 100 children a year, and Mrs Berger says she came
across the 11 separate cases of children with baffling behaviour before the
allegations of abuse at the civic creche were made public in December 1991.
Mrs Berger was so concerned she rang the police and told them of her finding.
The detective she spoke to said police were aware of "a case
brewing" but had not talked to all the parents and had not made the
issue public at that stage.
The 11 children, all aged five and six at the time, never testified in the
court case because Mrs Berger says their parents "didn't want to go
through that court process".
"I never believed (Ellis) was innocent. The things I have seen and heard
prove his guilt. I think he's as guilty as sin.
"I was not involved with the creche, I don't know all of the parents and
I've never met Peter Ellis, but every time I read of it, it makes me angry
... I can't even look at Peter Ellis on TV without thinking of those children
and what was done to them."
Mrs Berger said she had not spoken publicly about the case until now because
she felt bound by confidentiality clauses in her past job.
"It's very hard for a (professional) person to speak out, and I'm sure
there are hundreds of people (involved) who can't speak out at all. But I
kept reading about all these people like Lynley Hood and thought I had better
speak out. I have a strong belief that these children were abused."
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