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Sunday Star Times
August 31, 2003
Letters to the Editor
Sunday Star Times
August 31, 2003
Keep on with the Ellis crusade
by Sue Allan (Nelson)
Having read Frank Haden's column (August 24), I can agree with his assessment
of the children's testimonies and also of the teenagers wishing to speak out
and say they think they were definitely abused by Peter Ellis
Not having been in this country at the time of the original court case, I read
the transcripts published a couple of weks ago with interest.
On reading through them we came to the conclusion that they follow almost
exactly cases in the United
Kingdom - Coventry and the Scottish Islands
being the most notable - in the late 1980s and early '90s.
The case in the Scottish
Islands involved all
the children in the little community being removed from their families, some
seemingly forcibly, by the social services and the police, and taken into
care.
Needless to say the "testimonies" in these cases were found to be
false fairytales. Some closely resembled a couple of videos popular at the
time - Beetlejuice and Hocus Pocus - where there were trap doors and cages
and so on.
The cases of ritual satanic abuse all seemed to follow closely on the heels
of a lecture tour by an American "expert".
Another thing I almost find unbelievable is children as young as five or six
using the correct anatomical names for sexual organs. Any child I have ever known has their own
names for these things - willy etc. This, in my book, definitely points to
the "priming" of their poor young brains.
I do hope the case can be revisited with satisfactory results for Peter who
appears a caring person who deserves to be able to get on with his life
without the heartache this case must have caused him.
Sunday Star Times
August 31, 2003
Give the money back?
by Derek Smith (Auckland)
While Peter Ellis may not be everyone's cup of tea, it is clear he was
wrongly convicted and this conviction will eventually be overturned. Logically this will mean that the children
were not abused and in their joy at learning this, those 40 families each
paid $10,000 by the ACC no doubt will happily return the money to the
taxpayer, with interest.
This will go some way to helping the taxpayer compensate Ellis.
Sunday Star Times
August 31, 2003
No barking dogs
by Bernard Howard (Christchurch)
You are to be congratulated for the consistent stance taken by you and your
contributors on the Ellis affair.
A point not mentioned recently came to mind when I read of the American
priest imprisoned for his over-fondness for altar boys. Like many such, he
was so severely assaulted by fellow prisoners that he died.
I am reminded of Conan Doyle's story Silver Blaze, in which "the curious
incident of the dog in the night" enabled Sherlock Holmes to solve the
mystery. Because the dog did nothing in the night, Holmes knew the crime had
been committed by someone it knew.
I imagine the following dialogue:
A: Did you notice the curious circumstance of
what happened to the convicted child sex
abuser Peter Ellis during his years in
prison?
B: But nothing happened to Ellis in prison.
A: That is the curious circumstance.
Sunday Star Times
August 31, 2003
Anti-male bias
by Ian Wilson (Napier)
I am increasingly alarmed at the government's refusal to appoint a Royal
Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch Civic Creche fiasco - New
Zealand's worst miscarriage of justice.
Public confidence in the ability of our justice system to defend the innocent and determine
guilt has fallen as a result of the wrongful conviction of Peter Ellis, who
is obviously innocent.
Sir Thomas Eichelbaum's calls to end our ties with the Privy Council seem
strangely at odds with the growing contempt with which the public hold him,
Phil Goff, Margaret Wilson and Silvia Cartwright.
A not unreasonable Labour effort to improve the lot of women is turning into
the systematic criminalisation of the male gender.
There is now a significant anti-male gender bias as many men who have
suffered at the hands of the Family Court will attest.
Sunday Star Times
August 31, 2003
It could take years
Letter to the Editor
by S Napier (Auckland)
Frank Haden and all those who champion the cause of Peter Ellis - and his
undoubted innocence - should not give up.
It must be remembered that the appalling miscarriage of justice which saw
Londoner Timothy Evans hanged in 1950 for murder was not put right by the
system which executed him until 1965.
For 15 years the legal and political establishment refused to even
contemplate Evans' innocence, even though it was known from 1953 that the
mass murderer John Reginald Halliday Christie - who lived in the same house -
was almost certainly the man who killed Beryl Evans and their baby.
Keep the faith. Ellis was convicted in
1993 but surely it cannot take 15 years to see justice done for him.
Sunday Star Times
August 31, 2003
Keep it up
by Peter Johnson (Napier)
Keep it up, Frank Haden.
His articles, particularly on Israel-Palestine and the Christchurch Civic
Creche case, have been right on the button.
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