The Christchurch Civic
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Otago Daily Times University of Otago head of psychology
Prof Harlene Hayne has raised new questions about the evidential interviews
of children at the centre of the 1993 Peter Ellis sex-abuse case. Her
research findings point to a ‘‘strong risk’’ the children’s evidence was
contaminated by the way the interviews were carried out. Mamy questions - Page 3 Otago Daily Times
Peter Ellis Christchurch: An Otago University
academic has aired fresh doubts about evidential interviews of children at
the centre of the 1993 Peter Ellis sex abuse case. Research findings by the head of
the university’s psychology department, Professor Harlene Hayne, suggest
there is a ‘‘strong risk’’ their evidence was contaminated by the way the
interviews were carried out. Addressing the Innocence Project
conference in Wellington at the weekend, Prof Hayne urged the courts to
consider the case again. After a High Court trial and two
failed Appeal Court hearings, a ministerial inquiry conducted by former Chief
Justice, Sir Thomas Eichelbaum, in 2000 found that the interviewing of
children who gave evidence at Ellis’ trial was appropriate and had not been
undermined by contamination by others. However, Prof Hayne’s research
shows that questions put to the Christchurch children were much worse than
those done in a similar American daycare child abuse case in the 1980s that
Sir Thomas accepted in his report was a major miscarriage of justice. Prof Hayne analysed hundreds of
pages of verbatim transcripts of the pre-trial interviews with very young
children involved in the Christchurch case and in a similar case involving
New Jersey daycare worker Kelly Michaels. In his 2000 ruling, Sir Thomas
declared the Christchurch interviews were ‘‘best practice’’ and much better
than those in the Michaels case, which he accepted were badly flawed. Kelly Michaels, aged 23 when she
was arrested in 1985, was a day-care worker at the Wee Care Nursery School in
Maplewood, New Jersey. After a trial that lasted almost a year, she was
convicted of 115 counts of child sexual abuse and jailed for 47 years. She was released on appeal after
five years, with the New Jersey Supreme Court ruling that the ‘‘interviews of
the children were highly improper and utilised coercive and unduly suggestive
methods’’. Prof Hayne found the Christchurch
children were each subjected to an average 400 questions by Social Welfare
Department specialist service staff, compared with an average 200 questions
in the Michaels case. ‘‘There is a strong risk that the
children’s evidence was contaminated by the way those interviews were
conducted,’’ Prof Hayne told the Innocence Project conference in Wellington. ‘‘The courts should look at this
again.’’ Each child in the Ellis case was
asked an average of 20 suggestive questions, Prof Hayne said. ‘‘Just one can give a wrong answer
in laboratory tests.’’ She said the accuracy of children
was ‘‘terrible’’ when they faced large numbers of questions. The 400 questions each child in
the Ellis case was asked was double the number faced by children in the
Michaels case, yet Sir Thomas had said the Christchurch questioning was best
practice, Prof Hayne noted. ‘‘The standard of the questions
was not consistent with the best practice of the time, as a lot was known
then about the dangers of suggestive questions,’’ she told the conference. ‘‘The standard of the questions in
Ellis was not substantially better than those in Michaels.’’ Prof Hayne said as a scientist it
was difficult to talk about certainty. ‘‘We will never know what really
happened,’’ she said. ‘‘We can’t reinterview [the Christchurch children] now
as they will have taken on well-ingrained false memories of things that
didn’t happen. ‘‘This case has been a tragedy for
the children.’’ The Innocence Project, a group of
scientists, writers and lawyers who seek to investigate possible cases of
wrongful conviction, is a joint venture between Victoria University and Otago
University. |