The Christchurch Civic Crèche Case |
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A City Possessed: Lynley Hood's new book
on the Christchurch Civic Creche case knits together the elements surrounding
Peter Ellis's child abuse convictions into a valuable resource Hood presents a
passionate overview of what some see as a witch trial I have never read a 600-page book right through before.
Lynley Hood may not have got everything right about what happened at the
infamous creche, but with searing passion she has authored a cogent overview
of what posterity might view as New Zealand's equivalent of the Salem witch
trials. We all know fragments of the tale. To have reasoned dossier on hand,
no matter its "political" slant, is valuable and to encounter a
writer with such a sound grasp of legal nuance is a bonus. Hood has knitted together all the scores of divergent
elements that surround the conviction of Peter Ellis on 16 charges of sexual
indecencies with children. They comprise sudden upsurges in sexual abuse
consciousness, judicial deference to "experts" in child abuse, the
ACC rules allowing recovered-memory payments of up to $10,000 on
"proof" of molestation, the radical but inadequately debated
charges in the law whereby parent/child-generated complaints no longer needed
corroboration, the creche's political incorrectness, the driven detective
Eade and the social bravado of Peter Ellis. The legal outcome we know. But have there ever been such
unusual legal processes and histrionics where the drama has such Greek
inevitability? The reader an be left anguished and torn. How can the
"first team" bench of the Court of Appeal be so admiring of a trial
in which the jury was allowed to see only fully scrubbed, cosily-edited
versions of interview videos? Why is there so little outrage when, during the
appeal phase, the first star witness fundamentally changes her tune and the
experts opine that this is but reinforcement of the central truth? Are some
recovered memories more valuable than others? The appeal was argued on the daring all-or-nothing ground
that dubious and partial evidence was admitted and "chaperoned"
through by a judge benignly concerned to see Ellis convicted. Ellis's defence
lawyer (himself now a High Court judge) was a reluctant but dutiful advocate.
He stuck strongly to the unpopular view that, even allowing for new
evidential rules, the trial was skewed at the expense of evidential
principles that once were beacons of British law. But it's not just about law. Hood noses out both the flaws
and the virtues of those involved. The hard-drinking, ultimately
self-destructive Ellis, the streetwise tradesman barrister Rob Harrison, who
would dutifully defend the seemingly indefensible, the scared women staff of
the creche who knew that their best line in court was to distance themselves
from Ellis while in their hearts they were with him. Oddly, everyone is seen as basically striving to be
"good" and "watching out for the kids". But when fear
takes hold, who are the guardians? For me, the most chilling moment is when
the author, out of left field, justifies her gruelling first 250 pages
addressing the growing abuse industry and the "get the paedophile"
crusades. Because Ellis was always typecast as the man at the centre
of a satanic "ring" of offenders, it had been necessary to finger
"supporting" creche staff. Yet when the women defendants were
discharged, the prosecution amended the charges so that "persons
unknown" were suddenly assisting Ellis in "unknown",
locations. Hood then lets rip that these gaps were filled in by the fertile
imaginations of a community now conditioned to assume that there would be
"others" lurking in the shadows. Maybe the children did speak the truth. The appeal judges
were very firm that they did. They laid a hard (if quaint) question on
Ellis's courageous counsel: how could children speak of these perversions
unless they experienced them in some way? The picture of Ellis that emerges
is of one who supplied the answer every day of his life. His semi-reckless
flamboyance, love of daring wordplays and fabrication of bizarre sexual
stories about himself rubbed off on staff, parents and . . . perhaps
children. If ever a man talked himself into 10 years' jail, it could well
have been Peter Ellis.
Graphic: Lynley Hood - Hood presents a passionate overview
of what some see as a witch trial Graphic: Peter Ellis . . . flamboyant an loved daring
wordplays and fabrication of bizarre sexual stories about himself |