In the post Me Too landscape where accusation is the new evidential threshold, Peter Ellis may have been already been publicly executed, but the hysterical manner in which he was convicted in the 1990s has never been examined and his guilt remains one of the most outrageous miscarriages of justice this country has ever witnessed…
Peter Ellis asks Supreme Court to hear his appeal over Civic Creche convictions
Peter Ellis is fighting to clear his name some 26 years after he was convicted of sex offences against seven children at the Christchurch Civic Creche.
Supporters say Ellis – who has served his prison sentence and lives quietly in rural Canterbury – hopes to clear his name before he dies.
He has filed an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court. He lost his case in the Court of Appeal nearly 20 years ago, in October 1999.
…what many NZers fail to appreciate about the wrongful conviction of Peter Ellis was the manner in which the police prosecution was deeply corrupted, militant feminists wrong about accusation being the only evidence needed and of course the easily led muppets in Christchurch who believed a satanic cult was sexually molesting children.
That’s right.
A satanic cult that sexually molested children.
This was the 1990s and people were prepared to believe lots of demented bullshit, and one of them was active Satanic cults who sexually molested children (the irony being that it was the actual Christian Church who was doing most of the molestation at the time). Lynley Hood outlined all this nonsense in her must read, ‘A City Possessed‘ where she examined the link between Satanic hysteria and the Peter Ellis case.
In the 1990s, people believed anything children said and so a combination of mass hysteria, militant feminists demanding $10 000 payouts for ‘victims’, police corruption (the lead Detective was sleeping with many of the solo mothers complaining) and a base homophobia all contributed to the conviction of Ellis for satanic rituals and sex abuse that never existed.
Too many of those militant feminists and legal witch hunters made money and reputation off the flawed conviction so the system has refused point blank to ever acknowledge the entire thing was a fantasy.
The current cult of accusation on social media = guilt was tempered in the forges of ignorance that created the Satanic hysteria in the 1990s, surely the time is now to fight back at this injustice and review the Ellis case because this miscarriage of justice can not stand.
I’m plus one for believing Peter Ellis was innocent and it was a miscarriage of justice.
There was an interesting documentary about perceptions on the issue of sexual molestation. It provides room for thought on how they are prosecuted, including how the justice grossly exaggerated parts of the case. Sadly the boys son, got caught up in it, and was also prosecuted and it was never clear whether they were forced by police to confess to the charges.
Since then it has been found many people confess to crimes they did not do and are later cleared from with new evidence like DNA, but were coerced into fake confessions due to police/prosecutor actions.
Capturing the Friedmans
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capturing_the_Friedmans
Good luck to Peter Ellis. What a terrible thing to be accused of and hope he can clear his name.
A lot less to do with “millitant feminists” and a lot more to do with Fundimentalist Christians. If you look wider – the majority of the cases at that time in the UK and the USA had one thing in common – a brand of fundimantalist Christianity which saw Satanic influences everywhere. In one place it was a Social Worker, in another a Police Officer and in another a parent’s group. There was at least 1 former Police Officr travelling around giving seminars on how to recognise “Satanic Abuse”, and publishing stuff on the topic.
“There was at least 1 former Police Officr travelling around giving seminars on how to recognise “Satanic Abuse”, and publishing stuff on the topic.”
Starting to sound like our Meth ‘testing’ protocols and testing companies, where 30 committee members without any scientific qualifications managed to create a nonsense Meth level standard, that then was used to evict thousands of people from State houses, which coincidentally were also able to be sold off cheap with millions spent on consultancy for the above process.
Witch hunts always seem to have plenty cashing in.
Lindsey Rea: “A lot less to do with “millitant feminists” and a lot more to do with Fundimentalist Christians.”
I was working in ChCh at the time. My impression then was that militant feminists were heavily involved. I don’t recall fundamentalist Christians featuring at all; though it may well have been different overseas.
Amen, Martyn, amen!!
I read the original transcripts years ago, and it was pretty obvious that the children’s statements were ruthlessly cherry-picked by the prosecution to ensure Ellis was convicted. Here’s an exaggerated (but only slightly!) example of what I mean : “Peter put his hands down my pants, and after that we went through a tunnel under the Square, and one girl was killed….” Guess which part of that little fable the court got to hear? Also, the interviews with the kids were already deeply suspect – lots of leading questions designed to elicit a specific reply. The whole trial was a travesty.
Parents couldn’t keep from asking their kids questions, pushing and probing where they should not have. If you push a kid hard enough they will give you the answer you are wanting.
The whole thing was appalling one of the kid’s whose mother I happened to know way back then got dosh to produce a booklet on satanic ritual abuse.
Thank goodness that Ellis has always had a group of people behind him and his wonderful mother who has always believed in his innocence.
I find your blog disturbing Bomber. You reduce the whole ‘case’ to a simplistic one of manipulated children and ritual abuse. What I read and heard were the spontaneous accounts from children of scary behaviour from Ellis. Patents did not initiate this. One Listener article mentioned a child previously at the creche and then at school refusing to join a parent to go in to the creche to collect a sibling because he was terrified. He mentioned Ellis’ penis. Your certainty over what happened is questionable.
Innocent until proven guilty is the cornerstone of any legal fraternity. It’s inshrined into fair trial laws because “guilty until proven innocent,” is far less useful, but more emotionally satisfying.
It took 3 months of rigorous questioning that wouldn’t pass muster by todays standards for the children to start talking about the giraffes and tunnels and ritual abuse etc
The child in the bath who said to his mother “I’m sick of Peter’s big black penis” was what sparked off the whole nonsense.That remark was offered with no visible signs of distress and was misconstrued .
The beliefs at the time, ramped up by sensationalist media, was that there was an epidemic of child abuse ..globally.
The UK has addressed its miscarriages of justice and damage to families inflicted during this time, but NZ has never addressed this case in the light of changed protocols while questioning children and the acceptability of evidence from flawed questioning techniques
Karen Zelas, the leading investigative psychologist on the Ellis case should have been charged with perverting the course of justice, perjury and misleading the court – and sentenced to double what Peter got in prison.
After the Ellis case she went on to cause further issues in other cases – read here: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=3518885
Last Train to Jacindaville: “Karen Zelas, the leading investigative psychologist on the Ellis case should have been charged with perverting the course of justice, perjury and misleading the court…”
I was working in ChCh at the time. In my workplace, Karen Zelas was referred to (behind our hands) as Karen Zealot. Among the people I knew, scepticism about the entire case was widespread; given what we’d heard about the evidence, we were surprised that Ellis was found guilty.
Her name sounds like Karen Zealous to me. Couldn’t be more fitting, and should be spelled that way. I hope Peter Ellis is cleared before he dies.
Catlover: “Her name sounds like Karen Zealous to me. Couldn’t be more fitting….”
Heh! Yup. That’s why we used the “zealot” moniker. Zealous would have done it too, and may have been used by others at the time.
Oh, so do I, so do I! He’s been the victim of gross injustice; for the life of me, I fail to understand why it’s been allowed to go unrectified at all, let alone for so long.
In this country (like many other developed nations), people who wish to work with children are vetted to ensure they are fit to be in the position; to ensure they are safe in the presence of a small person and won’t do them any harm. Given the criminal nature of Zelas’ activities both in the Ellis case and subsequent court trials I am amazed that she wasn’t banned from working with children. A more dangerous person I cannot think of to be around kids.
The mere fact that her credibility was questioned in light of the Ellis case and the subsequent case where she was directly responsible for a miscarriage of justice says it all.
‘Everyone knows …’ But Mr. Ellis deserves official justice. Satanic rituals and suppressed memories — the witch-hunts of the 80s and 90s. Hysteria, the fumes of 2 things: the human condition and lack of Scandi demo-cracy — like the valium massively doled out to housewives in the 60s by the masters of our NZ universe back then, doctors.
Or there is Reason, of which I can’t persuade my mental rellies (BACs) despite my best efforts in the last year or two on Facebook. In that respect, looking forward to the incineration of 95 % of us. However they’ll just acclaim that as God … All subjectivism at 4 — their state –delivered me was looking at my birthmark on my lower leg on our steps and wondering when time would move on.
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