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The Christchurch Civic
Creche Case |
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The Press By Jo McKenzie-McLean Renewed calls for a commission of
inquiry into the Peter Ellis case are being made after a new analysis slams
the ministerial probe into his convictions as a "sham". The two-part article, written by
librarian and long-time Ellis researcher Ross Francis, of Wellington, has
been published in this month's edition of the New Zealand Law Journal. Ellis, convicted of 13 charges of
sexually abusing children at the Christchurch Civic Childcare Centre, has
been fighting to clear his name since being sentenced to 10 years jail in
1993. On top of a High Court trial and
two failed Appeal Court hearings, a ministerial inquiry was conducted in
2000. The inquiry, headed by Sir Thomas
Eichelbaum, found that the interviewing of the children who gave evidence was
appropriate and that the reliability of the evidence on which the convictions
were based was not undermined by contamination by others. A spokesman for Ellis supporters,
Richard Christie, said the latest article showed Eichelbaum's inquiry was a
"sham" designed to "bury rather than examine doubts previously
raised by three of the world's foremost experts on children's
testimony". "It calls into question the
conduct of officials and has ensured that the case will not be going away any
time soon," he said. Claims by Francis include: ·
Eichelbaum accepted then- chief legal counsel for the Justice Ministry
Val Sim's advice to "discount" strong concerns raised by Sir Thomas
Thorp, whose report was not publicly released until after Eichelbaum's
report. ·
Eichelbaum accepted Sim's advice to reject three of the world's
leading experts on child testimony, each of whom had been nominated by
Ellis's counsel. ·
Eichelbaum accepted Sim's advice to reject any expert who had a
"close publishing history" with each of the experts nominated by
Ellis's counsel. ·
Eichelbaum accepted Sim's advice to talk to American law professor
Thomas Lyon. Lyon's views on child sexual abuse have been subject to strong
academic criticism. ·
Little-known Canadian psychologist and child advocate Louise Sas was
supplied to Eichelbaum. ·
Sas has published no peer- reviewed research on the interviewing of
child-abuse victims, but Sim and officials led Eichelbaum to believe that she
had "high standing". ·
Officials advised former justice minister Phil Goff "about
six" experts were likely to be appointed as advisers to the inquiry, but
Eichelbaum selected only two. Ellis's lawyer, Judith Ablett-
Kerr, QC, said the article was "very concerning", and a call for a
full commission of inquiry would be "hard to resist". She would not
comment on individual points of concern raised in the article but said they
were "significant". "We certainly have been
concerned for some time about the selection of the experts for the
ministerial inquiry. Clearly, questions need to be asked and answers need to
be given," she said. "It's a case that should have
had a full commission of inquiry in the first place." A ministerial inquiry, particularly
the Ellis inquiry, was limited, she said. |
