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Otago Daily Times
December 11, 2003
Ellis case MPs told interview style changed
`Dangerous'
techniques dropped
by Sharon Lundy, of NZPA
Wellington: MPs considering whether to hold a royal commission of inquiry
into the Peter Ellis case yesterday heard of a "sea change" in the
way child sex abuse victims are interviewed.
Parliament's justice and electoral committee is weighing the merits of an
inquiry and heard from Ellis' supporters and the Ministry of Justice.
Ellis, a Christchurch
civic creche childcare worker, was convicted of child abuse and sentenced to
10 years jail in 1993. He was freed in 2000, still maintaining his innocence.
Yesterday, one of his supporters, international expert in child
suggestibility Maryanne Garry, told the committee of a "sea change"
in opinion on the way child victims were questioned.
Anatomically correct dolls were no longer used as children were curious and
their actions could be misinterpreted; instead, they would be encouraged to
do such things as draw pictures.
"When there's no evidence, we don't try and dig evidence out," Ms
Garry said.
"We don't use techniques that we know now are dangerous, in the same way
we wouldn't be putting asbestos in buildings any more. It was fine then. It's
not fine now."
Author Lynley Hood, who has spearheaded the campaign to have Ellis cleared,
told the committee a petition presented by campaigners was supported by a
"weight of political, legal and scholarly authority".
That included two former prime ministers, 12 former cabinet ministers, 28 MPs
from all parties, 12 law professors and a retired High Court judge.
Hood, whose book A City Possessed covers the case, said she started
researching the case nine years ago because she was so disturbed by it.
"My research began with the question `What did or didn't hap-
pen?'," she said.
"I was not questioning the exis- tence of child sexual abuse but I was
raising questions about false allegations and sex abuse hysteria. It was a
contentious area. I had to get it right.
"After seven years of detailed research and analysis, I was faced with
an inescapable conclusion: that the child abuse scandal that ripped Christchurch apart was
based on a botched investigation into a crime that never happened.
"In this case, the justice system failed, and failed catastrophically,
at many levels and has been unable to self-correct."
She compared the case to that of the Birmingham Six - six alleged Irish
Republican Army members convicted of a fatal Birmingham pub bombing in 1974, who were
released in March 1991 after it was found police had fabricated evidence.
But New Zealand First MP Dale Jones questioned how the two cases could be
compared.
"How can you compare the IRA situation . . . with a case in Christchurch, New Zealand, where the evidence
was essentially from children," he asked.
Ministry of Justice chief of legal counsel Val Sim told the committee it was
hard to see how a royal commission of inquiry could be held without hearing
from the children involved.
She reminded the committee the ministry was not there to contest or oppose
the petition.
"Some media reports may have given the impression that the ministry is
here to, as it were, appear for the other side to contest or oppose the
petition," she said.
"It would be unfortunate if such an impression lingered. I want to
assure the committee at the start that the ministry does not hold a brief for
the interests of any party, prosecution or defence, in this matter and we
don't appear today as an advocate."
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