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The Christchurch Civic Crèche Case |
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A City Possessed: Lynley Hood, an accomplished biographer, has focused her considerable
talents on the highly controversial Peter Ellis case. This is a remarkably
thorough book which may succeed in prompting an eventual clearance of Ellis's
name - a vindication which many believe is overdue. Ellis was a child care worker at the Christchurch Civic
Creche accused of numerous sexual and sadistic offences against small
children many of them bizarre eg forcing children to drink his urine or eat
his faeces, inserting sandwiches up a child's rectum. Hundreds of children
were believed to be involved. Hood believes that the implausible extent of
these offences made this case like the witch hunting craze. As she wittily
writes, the allegations "spread with the speed and virulancy of a
sociogenic Ebola virus." Hood expertly and lucidly shows how the 80s gave rise to
the Sexual Abuse Specialist not unlike witch hunters of earlier times and how
changes in New Zealand law made it easier to convict sex (or supposed) sex
offenders. The growth of the sexual hysteria industry was accompanied by false
statistics such as the well known claim by Miriam Saphira that one in four
girls would be the object of sexual abuse by their fathers, a
misinterpretation of a figure reported by Kinsey (Kinsey's figures actually
showed a ratio of 1 in 300). The ironic and sad thing is that prior to the outburst of
accusation, Ellis was extremely popular with the children even though some of
his horseplay was considered overly boisterous by adults eg hanging a child
on the picket fence by their overalls. However, the children liked it. Since
Ellis was never seen committing any sexual or sadistic acts evidence was
largely derived from interrogations of small children often with leading
questions, a method subsequently demonstrated to be fraught with peril. The
Sexual Abuse Specialist complete with nonsensical Recovered Memories have
been copy-catted from the USA. Now the Americans are recanting it is time we
did the same. This book - with its highly critical views on Sir Thomas
Eichelbaum's quashing of the review of the Ellis case - is part of a hopeful
return to legal as well as sexual and ethical sanity. |
