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The
Christchurch Civic Creche Case |
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Christchurch: A high profile group
of Christchurch lawyers has slammed parliamentary findings into the Peter
Ellis Civic Creche case. Christchurch lawyer David Ruth,
spokesman for legal advocacy group Just Cause, said the response of the
justice and electoral select committee to a petition calling for an inquiry
into the historic sexual abuse case was a “cop-out”. The long-awaited committee report,
released this week, rejected requests for a royal commission of inquiry into
the case. However, it paved the way for Ellis to appeal his 1993 conviction
on 16 sexual abuse charges to the Privy Council. Ellis and his supporters were
disappointed there would be no inquiry and remained sceptical about
recommendations for dealing with future cases. Responding today to the report, Mr
Ruth said the select committee was asked to address questions over the legal
process by which Ellis was convicted but had dodged the fundamental issue by
suggesting a Privy Council appeal. “It had nothing to do with whether
he was innocent or guilty,” Mr Ruth said. Ellis was convicted of the sexual
abuse charges based on the testimony of seven children who attended
Christchurch’s Civic Childcare Centre. One of the children later withdrew her
complaint during an appeal against his High Court convictions. “None of us here at Just Cause
have any real belief whether Peter Ellis is guilty or not guilty. But I think
the findings are a cop-out,” Mr Ruth said. He said past actions to the Privy
Council suggested Ellis’ case would not succeed. Releasing the findings on Monday,
select committee chairman Tim Barnett said the request for a royal commission
of inquiry was rejected because tweaking current laws would “do much more to
improve the standards of justice in our community”. |
