Other Creche Workers Implicated
Four female co-workers of Ellis were arrested on 1 October 1992. At depositions they faced 15 charges that included sexual violation, indecent assault and one charge of performing an indecent act in a public place. The charges were dropped, after depositions, on three grounds: firstly that evidence against them was of insufficient weight to justify a trial; secondly that there was so great a potential for prejudice against them that they might be convicted for the “wrong reasons”; thirdly that the unavoidable delay in their trial may have resulted in hardship to the child involved. In March 1995 they, and six other former staff who had also lost their jobs when the creche was closed in September 1992, were awarded $1 million by the Employment Court. This was later reduced to $170,000 by the Court of Appeal in September 1996.
Following the first investigation into allegations of abuse at the creche, the Christchurch City Council requested that psychologist and sex therapist, Rosemary Smart, review the management practices at the crèche. The review of the management of the Civic Creche was in response to "incidents of alleged sexual abuse of children at the Centre over a period of six years by a male staff member" (Smart, 1992). Smart's report quoted from Finkelhor's Nursery Crimes: sexual abuse in day care (1988), supplied to Smart by the office of Ian Hassall, then Commissioner for Children. It is an examination of an epidemic of alleged sexual abuse, including satanic ritual abuse, in US day care centres. In her report's introduction Smart said that sexual abuse in creches was a "phenomenon" and of "substantial concern for parents with children in care".
Smart's report did not mention any details of mass allegation creche cases. In the (1985) Wee Care Nursery School case, Kelly Michaels, a childcare worker, was charged with 235 counts of sexual abuse, She was found guilty on 115 counts involving 20 children and sentenced to 47 years in prison. She served five years before her convictions were overturned. In the McMartin preschool trial, then the most expensive in US criminal history, childcare worker Raymond Buckey and his 78-year-old grandmother were among the seven accused. None were convicted. Buckey was remanded in prison for five years until 1990 when all remaining charges were dropped. A former FBI agent, Lanning (1991), reported that investigations into more than 300 alleged multi-victim, multi-offender ritual sexual abuse cases had produced no physical evidence of abuse.
Rosemary Smart's report was critical of creche staff for failing to notice signs that children had allegedly been abused by Peter Ellis. Smart provided no evidence that children had been sexually abused. Smart suggested that staff might have been directly or indirectly involved with abuse at the Civic Creche. She claimed " knowledge of the detection and response to sexual abuse was minimal to non-existent". She wrote that "there have been few cases where staff members have been the source of sexual abuse disclosures by children" and, quoting Finkelhor, "this is because of "many disincentives, a great deal of reticence and reluctance to report, massive ignorance and inattention, as well as a few cases of actual covering up of abuse on the part of staff"". The crèche staff that Rosemary Smart spoke to "did not know of any incidents of sexual abuse of the children under their care".
Smart's report, a copy of which was given to police, was completed in July 1992. The report stands in marked contrast to another report made by the Education Review Office. The Education Review Office is a government department that undertakes periodic three-yearly reviews of all school and pre-school facilities in New Zealand. Coincidentally, in the week following the suspension of Peter Ellis, Education Review Office inspectors spent a full week at the Civic Crèche, observing its daily operation. The office subsequently issued a highly favourable report stating that "The staff ensure personal needs are met with warmth, care and consideration. The children appear happy, inquisitive and sociable" and that "...they have high self-esteem."
On 3 September 1992, following discussions between the City Council, Ministry of Education and police, the Civic Creche was closed.
Read more about this topic: Peter Hugh Mc Gregor Ellis
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