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Part 5 of the Newsroom series Peter Ellis, the Creche Case & Me is an up close and personal look at what remains one of New Zealand’s most famous High Court trials.
In never-before-seen footage and interviews, our new series takes you inside one of New Zealand’s most controversial court cases, as madness gripped Christchurch, leading to a miscarriage of justice that would take 30 years to correct.
“You say you still like them, but they’re the same people trying to put you behind bars.”
It was June 1993 and the night before the verdict in a case that had gripped the nation with its far-fetched allegations of satanic rituals and children being sexually abused with needles and sticks.
Accused babysitter Peter Ellis spent it with young reporter Melanie Reid. They sat in his apartment recording the last of their remarkable secret interviews, hours before they knew if he would be locked up.
Most of these secret recordings have never been seen before.
Until the sentencing, he firmly believed that he would be found not guilty: “I have no worries. I know there will be a good result,” he told Reid.
Surrounded by a circus of media, families, lawyers, witnesses, cops, Ellis stared straight ahead as the verdict was read. His mother left the courtroom and took a long walk up the three flights of stairs. A group of nursery school parents shouted “Witches!” at their four female colleagues, and in the week before the sentencing, one of the police’s top detectives shared his support for anti-gay campaigners. It was, in every sense of the word, a complete fiasco.
A divided city, divided marriages, estranged friends.
It’s hard not to see the establishment bias in this episode.
Stay tuned next week… Part 6 In prison and trying to get out
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