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The Christchurch Civic Crèche Case |
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A City Possessed: The great witchhunts of
history "represented the fusion of three separate but related
sociological disturbances: a moral panic, an epidemic of mass psychogenic
illness and an outbreak of scapegoating," writes Lynley Hood. The 672
pages of this meticulously researched book follow this framework to show what
went wrong in the most notorious day care case in New Zealand. In the early 90s, Peter Ellis, an openly gay teacher at
the Civic Creche in Christchurch, was accused of abusing children in all
manner of fantastical ways. Hood writes: "When I began this project, the key question underpinning
my research was this: to what extent were the staff of the Christchurch Civic
Child Care Center involved in child sexual abuse? I expected, sooner or
later, to uncover some real-life happenings on which, rightly or wrongly, the
allegations of criminality were based. But, in my years of dredging through
the mire in which this story has foundered, I found no evidence of illegality
by anyone accused in this case. Instead, I found convincing evidence that
more than 100 Christchurch children had been subject to unpleasant and
psychologically hazardous procedures for no good reason, and that a group of
capable and caring adults with no inclinations towards sexual misconduct with
children had had their lives ruined as a result." p.33 This fascinating and important book covers 30 years of New
Zealand social history to explain the travesty of justice in the Ellis trial.
Factors such as the merger in the early 1980s of feminism, religious
conservatism and the child protection movement; changes in laws; the handing
out of up to $10,000 to people who said but didn't have to prove that they
had been sexually abused; and visits by therapists from the United States all
played a role in what happened. A City Possessed is available directly
from the publisher. Email: [email protected] |
