Civic creche case: Supreme Court quashes Peter Ellis’ child sex abuse convictions
After almost 30 years the Supreme Court has quashed Peter Ellis’ convictions for child sex abuse, labelling his case a “substantial miscarriage of justice”.
In 1993, Ellis, a childcare worker, was found guilty of 16 sexual abuse charges against children at the Christchurch Civic Creche.
Ellis, who since being convicted has always maintained his innocence, was granted the appeal before his death in September 2019.
His lawyer argued Ellis deserved Tikanga – the right to establish the mana of a dead person.
The appeal is his third, following two in the 1990s. The first resulted in three convictions being quashed but the second appeal against the remaining 13 convictions was dismissed in 1999.
Ellis was 33 years old when he faced child sex abuse allegations in November 1991, against a backdrop of increased anxiety about child sex abuse in western countries.
Ellis spent his life trying to clear his name, and today his brother Mark sat in the Supreme Court listening to the words his late brother had waited so long to hear.
“This Court has unanimously allowed Mr Ellis’ appeal and quashed his convictions,” said Chief Justice Dame Helen Winkelmann.
The Supreme Court found two key problems in Ellis’ trial resulting in a “substantial miscarriage of justice”.
FINALLY! Justice for Peter!
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.
Ellis was convicted after touring evangelical Christians visited Christchurch and convinced the city in town hall meetings that a global satanic cult child sex ring was sexually abusing children.
The horror of how biased Police investigating the case went on to have sexual relationships with the solo mothers of the children abused, the horror of how leading questions were used to elicit compromised answers from the children and the horror of how the evidence was incentivised with ACC payments for any child who was ‘abused’ all combined to create the worst of Lynch mobs.
What is worse than a miscarriage of justice is the total lack of check and balance to that miscarriage.
The State refuses to acknowledge that as a human system, our justice system can lock up innocent people and refuse to be accountable for that far too often!
We have seen corrupt police interrogation tactic after corrupt police interrogation tactic locking innocent people up and never being held accountable for that!
We let Peter Ellis down and in the current age of trial by twitter, I believe we would fail him again if this happened today.
In the end, Peter Ellis could only find justice in death.
This is NZ.
The most terrifying part of the bitter miscarriage of justice against Peter Ellis is the naked reality that in the post me too landscape, if he were accused today, he’d already be cancelled and convicted on NZ Twitter.
The reason NZ Twitter woke are so quiet on the Peter Ellis judgement is because they must all B-E-L-I-E-V-E anyone who makes an accusation.
Accordingly ANYONE who suggests Peter Ellis was innocent is also a sex offender.
What great progress we’ve all made.
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I was helping to install a kitchen at Rolleston Prison when Peter Ellis was held there .A prisoner said unlike most child molesters he was not intimidated as other inmates declared him innocent. Itvis a pity neither he or his mother survived to hear the verdict of no guilty.
His conviction was a fucking abomination and that’s all I have to say Trevor.
A good summary by Martyn, even though I am a Conservative Christian I have always thought that he was innocent and that the numerous faults with the trial should have been rectified long before now.
To little to late for Mr Ellis. A sad indictment on our society and judicial system that listened to various hearsay’s rather than facts in condemning a man, in the end to death. Sadly in this age of trial by social media, there will be more Peter Ellis’s to condemn.
Everyone of those Christchurch mothers who received a $10,000 ACC payout for producing a very small child allegedly abused by the late Peter Ellis, must give serious consideration to redirecting its value to a better recipient. God rest Mrs Ellis, and her son.
not only evangelical Christians, but also woke feminist radicals.
Well said Martyn and the commenters above.
In was obviously an unsafe conviction: even the law society published an article condemning it, yet the legal authorities refused to grant an appeal on a technicality and our political leaders looked the other way.
Shame on them all!
Andrew. What needs to be said, so I ‘ll say it, is that the sort of persons using a city council crèche were low rent people. The police mightn’t have realised that, but the local judiciary most certainly would have. This could explain, but certainly not excuse, a more negligent or cavalier legal process than had they been denizens of Merivale, Fendalton or Strowan. A similar crucifixion occurred in the same time frame in Christchurch of an imported English surgeon from a non-posh working class background, opinioned upon by the chairman of the New Zealand College of Surgeons, less well trained, and working in a provincial hospital, with local medicos too gutless to speak up.
The city council creche was popular with university graduates related to Labour politicians. Not “low rent People”
Very NZ, justice too late.
Irony that this welcome but melancholy ruling comes at the same time as Phil Goff and Liane Dalziel have just left the picture.
Very sad it took so long for the situation to change.
Shame on all those nutty zealots of the time who had it in for him. Accusing him of violations that had little substance just make believe fashionable psycho b.s of the 1990’s era onwards.
What an amazing courage and strength of spirit he must have had as a human being to have gone through that horrible ordeal.
He teaches us much about life I think…
My thoughts are with his family and friends too.
Rest in peace Peter.
Thanks also Martyn for the article….well stated!
Writing as a NZRN, I knew at the time that leading questions of the children procured contaminated responses – unhelpful to any investigation. Justice has been done but too late for Peter Ellis & many people would have no recall of the events of that time. However, rather late than never.
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