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The Christchurch Civic
Creche Case |
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http://www.radionz.co.nz/nr/programmes/afternoons Radio New Zealand Jim Mora interviews Lynley
Hood. Jim Mora (2006): We’re reeling in 1993 on Reeling Today,
and it was the year of a trial that shook and shocked New Zealand. Every
parent’s worst possible nightmare was played out in a Christchurch courtroom. News Report (1993): There were tearful scenes in a Christchurch
District Court this afternoon after the announcement that five former child care
workers will stand trial in the High Court on sexual abuse charges. Four charges
were dismissed for want of evidence but the remaining 56 charges will go to
trial. Jim Mora (2006): Even though
charges against three former child care female workers were dropped the
effect on them was enormous. News Report (1993): Three former child care workers are
pondering their futures after being cleared of a sexual abuse charge by the
Christchurch High Court yesterday. Former crèche manager Gaye Davidson says it’s
a matter of finding a new career because she would never want to work in
child care again. Gaye Davidson (1993): I couldn’t bear the thought of this happening
to me ever again or people watching me to see what my child care abilities
were all about. I don’t know what I’m going to do with the rest of my life News Report (1993): Gaye Davidson says that the whole experience
has shaken her faith in the system Gaye Davidson (1993): It has totally changed my life completely. Shaken
my confidence. One of my sons has come away from school because he can no
longer cope with thinking he was being looked at and talked about. News Report (1993): Freed child care worker Jan Buckingham just
wants a normal life again. She says she hasn’t had a life for the six months
since she was arrested and her first priority is rehabilitation for herself and
her four teenage children. Jan Buckingham (1993): My family need a time where they’re not
anxious …where they’re not stressed. Where they’re not panicking
Ïs
Mum going to go to jail? Where my
children are not being harassed by other people. We need to go back to what
we were like. We were just a normal family.and we
became extraordinary. Jim Mora (2006): Charges were not dropped however against
Peter Ellis. In June 1993 Peter Ellis was found guilty on 16 counts of sexual
offences involving children in his care at the Christchurch Civic Creche and was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. The
outcome as we know has been strongly criticized with concerns centering around how the children’s testimony was obtained and presented
to the jury. News Report (1993): A child giving videotaped evidence says
three women crèche workers were present during a bizarre circle game where
children were made to kick each other in the genitals. News Report (1993): Adults were dancing around a circle painted
on the floor. Later the children were put down a trap door and in an oven.
They were warned they’d be killed if they told. News Report (1993): A girls says she and Peter Ellis had a bath
together News Report (1993): A boy says Ellis and others took children to
a graveyard and put them in coffin-like boxes. News Report (1993): A girls says she bled after Peter Ellis
pricked her bottom with a sewing needle. News Report (1993): A boy claims Ellis urinated on him 800
times, News Report (1993): saw others being abused and says Ellis gave
her an iceblock to keep quiet. News Report (1993): Child sex abuse expert Karen Zelas says the children involved in the case know more
about sex than they should. News Report (1993): Dr Zelas tells the
court a child could not make up a story of sexual abuse. News Report (1993): Ellis indecently assaulted her many times and
two women crèche workers saw what happened. News Report (1993): The man at the centre of the child abuse
case has steadfastly denying all allegations of sexual abuse but he admits
sex was often a topic of discussion during breaks at the crèche. News Report (1993): He says he played boisterous games with children
including one called “tickle bashups” but never
touched them indecently. News Report (1993): Many of the incidents are said to have
happened in crèche toilets but News Report (1993): Ellis’s lawyer Rob Harrison says not one of
the eleven child complainants made a spontaneous disclosure before being
questioned. News Report (1993): The judge has told the jury if they accept
the defendant’s denial then they have their answer to the charges before
them. Jim Mora (2006): Peter Ellis has always maintained his
innocence and many New Zealanders have supported calls to overturn his
convictions. The case has been subject to a High Court trial, two Court of
Appeal hearings and a Ministerial inquiry.
There have also been two parliamentary petitions, two books and numerous
articles about the case. Lynley Hood is the author of one of the books: “A City Possessed”and in detailing the events and debates leading
up to and surrounding the Christchurch Civic Creche
case she showed how such a case could happen and why. And Lynley
Hood joins us now. Hello Lynley Lynley Hood: Hello Jim Mora: Thank you for your time too. Can I ask you what made you
first start looking into the Peter Ellis case? Lynley Hood: I’ve written other books about controversial issues. And by
temperament I’m the sort of person who stands by the side of the road when
people waving placards and chanting go past. And I’m thinking how can you be
so sure you’re right? So I’m interested in finding out what did or didn’t
happen at the crèche and I expected there’d be some truth somewhere and so I just
kept digging and digging and digging. And there was nothing. There was absolutely no basis for the
charges at all. I was stunned when I came to the end of it. Jim Mora: We’ll get into that in just a tick. Your book is assiduously
researched. I don’t anyone would quarrel with that. How long did it all take you? Lynley Hood: It was seven years from go to whoa, until publication. Jim Mora: So you went into the case with not a preconceived idea,
but an idea that there must be something to the charges. That’s how you approached
it? Lynley Hood: Well I was wanting to find out where
the truth lie. The case came up when I was finishing my book on Minnie Dean,
the Winton baby farmer, and I actually ended up by finding that there was
some basis for one of the charges. I think she did smother one of the
children. There were all sorts of other issues if mass hysteria around it as
well. I was prepared to find whatever I found and write the book about that. Jim Mora: We heard in that abridged court report that Peter Ellis
talked about sex in front of the children. To what extent was that true? Lynley Hood: No. Not in front of the children. Over morning tea with the
staff. Jim Mora: So we drew the wrong inference from that clip? Lynley Hood: I don’t think the clip actually said Jim Mora: I drew the wrong inference then. I’d have to listen to it again. Lynley Hood: Yeah. Jim Mora: So when you say there was absolutely nothing in the
charges, how did the case come to trial in the first place then? Lynley Hood: It was just a great snowball
that kept on rolling and became unstoppable. Starting with the absolute
conviction that people who are intent on seeing sex abuse everywhere - the
anxiety that this creates can just become contagious. Jim Mora: Did it have any origin at all in parental disquiet over Peter
Ellis flamboyant manner or anything like that? Lynley Hood: It had it’s origin in the fact that it was an extremely popular
and well run crèche in the centre of Christchurch and very politically
correct and multicultural and so on, and for that reason it attracted a lot
of social workers and therapists and people like that. So Peter Ellis was in fact popular just
because they thought they were being very politically correct by having this
guy at the child care centre. But at the same time these are the sort of
people who grill their preschoolers to within an inch of their lives about
whether anyone has touched them in a way they didn’t like, or did anyone
touch their bottom? and these sort of questions It’s a regular part of their lives. And Peter
Ellis was there for nearly six years and during that time no child complaint to
anybody about anything was made and none of the highly anxious parents saw
anything that concerned them. But there was just one mother with a history of
mental instability who claimed that her child made an allegation but that
child never became a complainant in the court case because he never repeated
it. He just insisted that Peter was his friend whenever any of the experts asked
him. Jim Mora: A lot of parents I think were surprised ... and I'm going
on my memory here of the original trial that it was believed so completely
that little children couldn't tell lies about what would have gone on there. Lynley Hood: Yes Jim Mora: Is my recollection correct that we actually thought that
children would always tell the truth in circumstances like that? Lynley Hood: We didn't. You and I didn't Jim, and most sensible good hearted
New Zealanders didn't. It was just a belief and it still persists among the
people who are driven by this ideology that sex abuse is everywhere and and no man can be trusted around children and they've
become very influential in the courts and justice system and social welfare Jim Mora: Do you still think we believe that though, or do you think
that as a result of the Peter Ellis case we now know that small children are
prone to embroidering their circumstances; not just sexually but in all sorts
of ways? Lynley Hood: Well when you say we, you and I, and 99% of your listeners. Yes.
But there are a minority of influential child abuse
investigators and they are the same people making the same mistakes driven by
the same ideology who are continuing on that way. The police have become more
cautious perhaps. The problem is these investigators interpret what children
say so when you look at what the child actually says it's pretty harmless or
you can find some obvious explanation for it. But when you've got
investigators making extremely sinister interpretations of what children have
said. There was case in Christchurch
last year where a poor little six year old was labeled as a sexual predator
and it eventually turned out that they just were playing I'll show you mine
if you show me yours behind the bike shed sort of thing. And that was sort of knocked on the head by
the authorities so they know better than letting that get away. But the only reason they know better is they know
they'll get laughed at by everybody. Jim Mora: I don’t know about your 99% though Lynley.
A poll of 750 adults conducted in 2002 by the NBR revealed that 51% thought Peter
Ellis was innocent, 25% still thought he was guilty; and 24% were unsure . Do you think that's a fair reflection of the public
opinion about the case? Lynley Hood: Well I think there's the issue of whether Peter Ellis was
guilty or innocent, and there are all sorts of ways people look at that
because I know there are people who say it would never have got back that far
if he hadn't done something. It's only really when you go, as I did, spending
seven years looking at it and if you read the book you can come to grips with
that, so I can understand people feeling unsure, but what I was talking about
is the ideology that drove it and that's a minority of people. Jim Mora: On April 4th 2006 it was announced that Peter Ellis plans
to appeal to the Privy Council in London. Do you think this may be successful,
especially in light of the David Bain case. Is there
hope there for him, do you think? Lynley Hood: I would hope so. It's a
bit of a worry. He's certainly been given a people's pardon. Jim Mora: Yes Lynley Hood: When he walks down the street people come up and shake his hand
and pat him on the back. He's never been persecuted in the way that other
convicted child molesters who are released into the community are. Jim Mora: What's it done to him though do you think? to Peter Ellis? We've
heard his story every so often, but you've got close to the whole business through
those seven years of research and writing. What in your opinion has it done
to him? Lynley Hood: He's got a very Pollyannerish
personality, so he's kept his sense of humour but
it's obviously shaken his confidence. He had a nasty heart attack last year
so he's not terribly well. It just seems unfair. He was a very very good childcare worker as were all the women there. Jim Mora: A strange case and thoroughly documented in your book "A
City Possessed" and really appreciate your time Lynley
Hood. Thank you for joining us. |
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