|
|
The |
|
Having her book, A City
Possessed, read and acclaimed is very nice, says A finalist in this
year's Montana Book Awards, Lynley Hood, who spent seven years researching
and writing her acclaimed book, A City Possessed, says it's difficult getting
a response from anybody challenged by the often searing criticism in it. One who refuses to
engage in the debate is Justice Minister Phil Goff, who, despite initiating a
ministerial inquiry upholding creche worker Peter Ellis' sex-abuse
convictions, now constantly fields questions about whether he has read the
book. He hasn't, but has
received an appraisal from a Ministry of Justice official that is also
awaiting his attention. Meantime, he has to put
up with cheeky constituents sending him a poem penned by Hood's son David
called If Dr Seuss were Minister of
Justice (see far left). "Nobody who has read the book has challenged
me on anything I have said," Hood says. "It just shows you
what cowards these bullies are. They are holding the country to ransom, and
they won't come out and debate the issues. Not a peep from the Commissioner
for Children (Roger McClay), who would jump up and down at the first mention
of Peter Ellis' innocence, or Greg O'Connor (Police Association head), or any
of the usual suspects. It must mean they have no answers." Hood is not surprised
by Goff's reaction, and condemns what she calls his "extraordinary
closemindedness". "The fact that
Phil Goff's refusal to address the issues raised in A City Possessed is
making himself and the Government look ridiculous doesn't bother me, but the
fact that his head-in- the-sand attitude is making the justice system look
ridiculous is in my view unforgivable. "The debate about
the case, which has been re-ignited by the book, won't be going away,"
she says. "The ramifications
go far beyond the creche case. ACC-funded therapists use counselling
techniques that are known to encourage false memories of sexual abuse; CYFS
interviewers use investigative techniques that cannot distinguish between
true and false allegations of sexual abuse; laws relating to children's
evidence make it easy for juries to convict on unreliable evidence; the Court
of Appeal is unable to correct its own mistakes. These issues have to be
faced up to sooner or later." A testy response from
Mr Goff's advisers on mention of the book comes as no surprise. A spokesman says the
campaign to get Mr Goff to act on the book has been wearing and often
irrational. The book was not a legal document, and if it was so compelling
why had Ellis' counsel, Judith Ablett-Kerr, QC, not made another application
for a pardon from the Governor-General? That is a good point,
but it's clear if Mr Goff felt inclined to take further action because of the
book he could. It would require an admission the Eichelbaum inquiry, which he
initiated, was unsound, and that concession appears unlikely. Hood, however, is not
taking no as the final word on the matter, and is happy to respond to
letters, take up speaking engagements, and play her part in the battle for
"hearts and minds". She appears to be
enjoying it, in fact, as she takes a year's sabbatical before embarking on
another project. Every day her mail is overflowing with kind remarks about
the book, outrage at the way the case was handled, and expressions of support
for change. She has had positive letters from victims of abuse, and from
people who say the book has knocked colleagues and friends out of their certainties
about the case. "There was a time
not so long ago when I thought I would get old and die before the book was
published. My best-case scenario was that I would publish it myself, and the
hostility I encountered as I was writing it would increase a thousand fold,
and I would spend the rest of my life under siege, but that hasn't happened
at all. It's been a breeze, compared to what it was like when I was writing
it. It's been good." Although her previous
books, including Sylvia: the Biography of Sylvia Ashton-Warner, which won the
1989 Goodman Fielder Wattie Award, and Millie Dean: Her Life and Crimes, were
able to "stand and walk" from birth, she is not quite ready to
abandon A City Possessed to its own devices, she says. City libraries have 60
copies of the book, of which 57 are available for loan. About 150 people are
now on the waiting list, which has at times stretched to 200 people. Hood believes a
commission of inquiry into the case, along the lines of a truth and
reconciliation model, should be instituted. "God help us, we
don't want a witchhunt back in the other direction, and we have to accept a
commission of inquiry won't fix anything really. There are obvious law
changes that can be done without an inquiry. "But everyone has
to give an account of what they did and why. It's just got to have an airing
so people can move on. "And the trade-off
for people who have been damaged by the process is the story gets out there,
but they can't expect squillions of dollars in compensation. But we have to
face up to the damage we have done to innocent people." She is sounding like a
campaigner, but claims all she is is an advocate for a "credible justice
system". "All I'm doing is
encouraging people to think for themselves. It's their initiative. I feel as
if I've done my bit by writing the book ..." Her talks and, of
course, the book are having an effect, she says, even if the Government looks
the other way. "It is having an
effect in the courts. 23G (a section allowing prosecutors to call expert
evidence that a complainant's behaviour is consistent with children who have
been sexually abused) is being used less and less." Other readers have been
people interested in filming the book. While negotiations
continue, Hood and many others will maintain the pressure to get Mr Goff to
say: Thank you, thank you Lynley Hood, Read your book I should, I should. You can hear Lynley
Hood in conversation with Cynthia Hawes at the Great Hall, Arts Centre, June
3, 11-noon, $2, door sales only. . If Dr Seuss were Minister
of Justice -------------------- CAPTION: PHOTO: Otago Daily Times Lynley Hood: "All
I'm doing is encouraging people to think for themselves. I feel as if I've
done my bit by writing the book ..." |
