A former Christchurch creche supervisor, swept up in the Peter Ellis saga, is calling for accountability after the case was declared a miscarriage of justice.
Gaye Davidson was one of four female workers accused of child sex abuse alongside the late Ellis.
Their charges were dropped, while Mr Ellis was convicted in 1993 of abusing seven children and spent seven years in jail.
Davidson said she was a “bundle of emotions” after Friday’s historic Supreme Court judgement which posthumously exonerated Peter Ellis of all 13 convictions of child sex abuse.
Ellis died three years ago, his former co-worker was sad he wasn’t alive to hear the decision.
“He was strong in his beliefs that the children had to know and he would keep fighting until they did, and I’m just so sorry he’s not here today to see it’s come so far,” said Davidson.
She recalls some of the bizarre acts they were accused of.
“We were supposed to have put children in microwaves and had people come through concrete ceilings and taken them to the QE2 [Recreation and Sport Centre] and throwing them in the pool.”
The allegations at the creche arose against a backdrop of moral panic following similar investigations into satanic ritual abuse at child care centres in the US.
On Friday, New Zealand’s top court found major problems with the evidence presented at the 1993 trial of Ellis, ruling a substantial miscarriage of justice had occurred.
The Supreme Court said the evidence by the children had become contaminated through questioning from parents and the jury had not been fairly informed of that level of risk.
It also found the evidence presented by the psychiatrist Dr Karen Zelas departed from the appropriate standards, lacked balance and suffered from problematic circular reasoning.
“There’s quite a few people who should be held accountable for the miscarriage that’s happened,” said Davidson.
The parents of the child complainants disagree with the Supreme Court decision. In a statement on Friday, they said “the trauma of not being believed over the years takes its toll” and “the court of public opinion is often ill-informed.”
But the saga has also taken its toll on Davidson. She received death threats and her career was ruined.
“There was no way I’d ever be employed in child care again, but more importantly there was no way I wanted to be employed in child care because it frightened me, I was scared,” she said.
SHARE ME