Peter Hugh Mc Gregor Ellis - Latest Reports

Latest Reports

The Ellis case is highly controversial, with many New Zealanders believing he is innocent. A poll of 750 adults conducted in 2002 by the National Business Review revealed that 51% thought Ellis was innocent, 25% thought he was guilty, and 24% were unsure.

The case has been linked with the day care sexual abuse hysteria, a moral panic that originated out of California in 1982 and that existed throughout the 1980s. It has also been cited as a major cause in the decline in the number of male teachers in New Zealand schools.

Research by London et al. (2005) has found that, contrary to the testimony of Dr Karen Zelas, sexually abused children typically disclose abuse when asked. They seldom deny or recant abuse allegations. The authors noted that the highest recantation rates were found in studies of allegedly abused children in a day-care setting. “Because of concerns about the actual abuse status of the children in these studies, one might argue that these recantation rates reflect the number of children who attempt to discredit their own previous false allegations by setting the record straight”.

The continued campaign on behalf of Ellis has angered at least two of the complainants and their parents. "I would have been happy to never talk about the abuse ever again.... I'm sick of being called a liar. And if I don't say anything, Peter Ellis will keep going around saying he's innocent and more people will believe him," stated 'Tom' in a 2003 newspaper interview. Tom, the son of Joy Bander, said he stood by the allegations, including being hung in a cage, that he had made as a young child. He said parents had nothing to do with what the children had said and that all his parents had ever said to him was that he should tell the truth. He continued to claim that female staff at the creche had abused him.

Ellis has received widespread support. In 2001 Lynley Hood published a book about the case and the moral panic of sexual abuse within New Zealand at that time. In 2002 A City Possessed won the top prize for non-fiction and for readers' choice in the New Zealand Book Awards. In June 2003, two petitions called for a royal commission of inquiry into the case. The first, organised by then National Party leader Dr Don Brash and MP Katherine Rich, had 140 highly prominent signatories and these included retired high court judge Laurence Greig, nine QCs, two previous prime ministers of New Zealand David Lange and Mike Moore, former Auckland police chief Bryan Rowe, nine professors of law, historian Michael King, "Rachel", a complainant who later retracted her allegations that Ellis had abused her, and experts in scientific, legal and social fields. In 2006, Don Brash cited the case when supporting calls for an independent body investigating miscarriages of justice in New Zealand.

In 2003, "Rachel", then 18, publicly supported the call for a commission of inquiry into the case. She testified at depositions that Peter Ellis had abused her. She did not testify at his trial. She believes that her mother was phoned by social workers because her name had been mentioned by other children. When she was formally interviewed she said that Ellis had touched her. When asked where, she replied, "On my head". She said she enjoyed her time at the creche. "I remember loving being there. I remember playing lots of games. Peter was really nice. I got on really well with Peter...I could have imagined that if something was wrong, I would have sensed that". She said she felt pressured by investigators. "I had a feeling I was involved in something pretty serious. One of the women told me Peter had done all these really bad things, and I remember saying, 'But he's a really nice guy'". She said she would have remembered if she had been abused. "I knew he didn't do it". She believes he was convicted because he is homosexual and was the only male worker at the creche.

In August 2005, Parliament's justice and electoral select committee reported on the two petitions relating to the Ellis case. The committee had several concerns with the way the case was prosecuted. It recommended several changes, although it acknowledged that changes had already been made to the way that children were now interviewed. It also suggested that the testimony of expert prosecution witness Karen Zelas would not be permitted if it were proffered now. The committee noted that: "The operation of the legal system in respect of this case did not inspire adequate public confidence in the operation of the legal system. A justice system should lead to certainty. In this case it seemed to increase the sense of uncertainty". However, the committee rejected the petitioners' call for a commission of inquiry, concluding that it was not practical to hold such an inquiry.

In late 2007 and January 2008, three articles on the Ellis case were published in The New Zealand Law Journal. These included New Evidence in the Peter Ellis Case by researcher Ross Francis, which prompted Sir Thomas Thorp to comment that the articles "must add to concerns expressed previously that that case may have gone awry".

In December 2007 the New Zealand Innocence Project heard from University of Otago Professor Harlene Hayne of her research which compared the standard of interviews conducted in the Ellis case with those of the Kelly Michaels case. Empirical analysis allowed Hayne to conclude that there was a "strong risk that the evidence of children who told of sexual abuse by Ellis was contaminated by the way the interviews were carried out" and that, contrary to Eichelbaum's conclusions, "the standard of the questions in Ellis was not substantially better than those in Michaels". Francis's articles and Hayne's research were cited in January 2008 by Ellis's counsel when making a renewed request that the Ministry of Justice establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the case, but Associate Justice Minister Rick Barker rejected this approach in March 2008. A further call for a Commission of Inquiry was made by former National MPs Katherine Rich and Don Brash and author Lynley Hood in November 2008, and the new Minister of Justice Simon Power said that the government would reconsider the issue. He later declined their request for an inquiry, on the grounds that Ellis still held the right of appeal to the Privy Council and an inquiry therefore could not achieve finality.