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The
Christchurch Civic Creche Case |
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A promised inquiry into
the Peter Ellis civic creche case under a National-led government will be a
waste of money unless it is a commission of inquiry, Mr Ellis' lawyer says. National Party leader
Don Brash told a Peter Ellis supporter in an e-mailed letter that he intended
a "full inquiry" into the circumstances of Mr Ellis' child abuse
convictions if National succeeded in forming a government. Mr Ellis was convicted
in 1993 of abusing seven children at the Christchurch Civic Creche and was
sentenced to 10 years' jail. One complainant later said she had lied and
three convictions were quashed. Mr Ellis served two-thirds of his sentence
and has maintained his innocence. The justice and
electoral select committee has spent two years considering a petition brought
by Dr Brash and author Lynley Hood calling for a royal commission of inquiry.
Mr Ellis' Dunedin
lawyer Judith Ablett-Kerr QC said she had not heard directly from Dr Brash.
"Both Peter Ellis and I look forward to receiving written assurances
from Dr Brash that he would establish an inquiry with the appropriate
powers." Since 1997, she had
petitioned the governor-general three times for a commission of inquiry. She was concerned that
National's justice spokesman Richard Worth, a member of the select committee,
had said an inquiry by an overseas judge was one option. Mr Worth said this week
that an overseas judge could review the history and evidence of the Ellis
case, as in the case of Arthur Alan Thomas, who was pardoned after being
convicted of double murder. But Mrs Ablett-Kerr
said any inquiry should have the powers of a commission: "The power to
summons witnesses and compel evidence to be given is a vital part of any
satisfactory inquiry into the Ellis case." The ministerial inquiry
ordered by Justice Minister Phil Goff and led by former chief justice Sir
Thomas Eichelbaum in 2000 did not have those powers, she said. "It would
be futile to merely repeat that same exercise." |
