|
The
Dominion Post
August 23, 2003
Ex-creche children to get legal help
Former
Christchurch Civic Creche children will be able to give evidence in their
home city on the petition calling for a royal commission into the 10-year-old
child abuse case.
Two of the children, now in their late teens, told The Dominion Post last
week that they needed financial help for lawyers, and to travel to Wellington
to speak at the justice and electoral select committee.
But committee chairman Tim Barnett, Labour MP for Christchurch Central, said
last night that the committee was likely to conduct hearings in Christchurch if it
moved beyond initial consideration of the petition.
Mr Barnett said people appearing before the committee did not need lawyers,
but if the former Civic Creche children thought they did, the committee could
help pay the cost.
Earlier, retiring commissioner for children Roger McClay said his office
would help with legal and travel costs from a donations fund it had.
National list MPs Don Brash and Katherine Rich presented a petition to
Parliament signed by 140 prominent New Zealanders calling for a full inquiry
into the case, which saw Civic Creche worker Peter Ellis convicted of 16
charges of sexually abusing pre-schoolers.
They organised the petition after reading Dunedin writer Lynley Hood's book on the
case, A City Possessed.
After signing the petition, one former Civic Creche child, Rachel, now 18,
retracted allegations she made against Ellis in 1992, saying the events never
happened.
But last weekend, two others, Tom and Katrina, now 17, publicly repeated
their claims that Ellis abused them and said they wanted to tell the
committee their story. Seven of the charges for which Ellis was convicted
related to them.
Mr Barnett said the committee would hear from the Justice Ministry and the
petitioners before deciding whether to hold a wider inquiry.
If that happened, it would sit in Christchurch,
where most people likely to want to make submissions were.
He had already held talks with people from both sides of the issue.
Mr Barnett said the committee would need to narrow down the issues to those
relevant to whether a royal commission was needed. He did not want a
recreation of the 1993 court case, after which Ellis was sentenced to 10
years in jail, protesting his innocence.
Earlier, Mr McClay said he had written to four youngsters who wanted to
appear before the committee, offering them funds if they failed to find money
elsewhere.
Money from funds given to his office, to help the victims of child abuse,
would be put toward the youngsters' travel and legal costs.
The fund was created from money given to his office following the death of
James Whakaruru.
It had been topped up with donations following recent publicity about the
teens who wanted to share their experiences at the Christchurch creche.
|
