Lynley Hood - A City Possessed: The Christchurch Civic Creche Case

First published in 2001 by Longacre Press, Dunedin

Republished in 2019 by Otago University Press, Dunedin

Te Whare T o Te Wnanga o tkou

Level 1, 398 Cumberland Street

Dunedin, New Zealand

www.otago.ac.nz/press

Lynley Hood

Lynley Hood asserts her moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

ISBN 978-1-98-853185-4 (print)

ISBN 978-1-98-853191-5 (EPUB, Kindle mobi)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of New Zealand. This book is copyright. Except for the purpose of fair review, no part may be stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including recording or storage in any information retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. No reproduction may be made, whether by photocopying or by any other means, unless a licence has been obtained from the publisher.

Author photograph: Victor Billot

Ebook conversion 2019 by meBooks

To freedom of speech,
to the authors moral right to the integrity of the work
and to Sandra Moran and John Tizard

Contents

A City Possessed:The Christchurch Civic Creche Case by Lynley Hood was first published in hardback by Longacre Press in Dunedin in 2001. It went on to win the Montana Medal for Non-Fiction at the 2002 Montana New Zealand Book Awards.

By then Peter Ellis had completed seven years of his 10-year sentence for child sexual abuse and had been released. All his appeal efforts to that date and since have failed and in 2019, aged 61 and diagnosed with terminal cancer, he still carries the weight of his conviction.

On 31 July 2019 he was granted leave for a final appeal to the Supreme Court. The hearing is set down for mid-November 2019.

This edition of A City Possessed, in paperback and ebook, is an unrevised reprint of the original book. Small parts of the text (such as the description of Christchurch, written before the earthquakes of 201011 and the horrific events of 15 March 2019) are now out of date, but have been retained as important elements of the context of the times in which the events occurred. The essence of Hoods extensive research and detailed accounts of the events that unfolded remain relevant today.

We hope republication will enable members of the public unfamiliar with the case to acquaint themselves with the detail of a case that is, almost 20 years on, once again before the courts.

A sample of reviews of the original publication:

Chris BourkeNorth & South
Lynley Hood has left no stone unturned in her 672-page examination of the Civic Creche saga, A City Possessed, that took her seven years to write. The title reflects the conclusion she draws: that a moral panic took place within elements of Christchurch society, driven by madcap political fashions, homophobia or old-fashioned Puritanism.

Sarah FarquharNZ Herald
A City Possessed is scholarly in tone but is a gripping and accessible read Indeed this is a book that is likely to be referred to by lawyers, historians, sociologists, social workers, child health professionals, psychiatrists and, I hope, educational administrators for years to come.

Michael CorballisNew Zealand Listener
This courageous book is a detailed, step-by-step account of what happened in the Christchurch Civic Creche case. Lynley Hood has set this sorry affair in the context of the wave of hysteria over ritual child abuse that swept the Western world in the 1980s and early 1990s, and examined some of the historical precedents.

Lisa BrownJournal Australia & NZ Psychiatry
Whether or not you agree with author Lynley Hoods views on the falseness of the allegations is not the point of reading this book, the book effectively raises questions that anyone in the area of child sexual abuse will find interesting and challenging.

Ian FreckeltonNew Zealand Lawyer
a landmark work It is well written, excellently edited and professionally presented. It walks the difficult line between a scholarly work and a book that is engaging and accessible. Ultimately, it does so successfully, entertaining, provoking and chronicling an extraordinary legal and social saga which is deserving of the kind of in-depth treatment given

Barry ColmanNational Business Review
I think theres a really huge disquiet among New Zealanders everywhere about what happened in that trial. We have got a deep sense of unease about the entire episode. [This] book has been an absolute revelation in this whole affair.

Anthony FrithVarsity
Anyone who has reached their own conclusions about Elliss guilt without reading Hoods extraordinarily well researched and argued A City Possessed should bite their tongue and hold their pride until they have read it.

Dr Jim HeffordNew Zealand GP
Her book is a devastating indictment of the virtual reality rituals of the courtroom, and of significant sections of the counsellors and doctors involved in the sexual abuse field.

Gavin McLeanOtago Daily Times
This is an important, engrossing and highly disturbing book. Whether you believe Peter Elliss innocence or not and I am inclined to it is worth reading and discussing for the wider issues that emerge. At a time when educators and parents are lamenting the poor performance of boys in schools, any ideological and legal barriers to males entering the caring and teaching professions should be examined closely.

Michael MorrisseyInvestigate
Lynley Hood, an accomplished biographer, has focused her considerable talents on the highly controversial Peter Ellis case. This is a remarkably thorough book which may succeed in prompting an eventual clearance of Elliss name a vindication which many believe is overdue.

Greg NewboldThe Best
Having untangled and examined the numerous threads that make up the Peter Ellis story, Lynley Hood had to weave them into a comprehensible and readable format. The result is nothing less than outstanding; an encyclopaedic work of professorial quality. Hoods treatment is a compelling authority; an opus so deep, detailed, insightful and comprehensive that nobody could now be said to have an informed opinion about the case without having read her book.

Katherine RichThe Star
When I picked up Lynley Hoods book A City Possessed I worried that I wouldnt have the time or the inclination to finish it. I shouldnt have worried. The book is unputdownable.

Jim TuckerDaily News
It takes great courage to step outside mainstream thought and suggest it is not OK to distort the law, condone over-zealous counselling and police work, and cause collateral damage in a quest to rid the country of child molesters. This is what Hood, a 58-year-old Dunedin scientist, writer and grandmother, has done in this book.

Mike Behrens Q.C.Manawatu Standard
This is not bandwagon stuff. Hood makes her points clinically and with the authority of an historian who has left no source unturned. Her approach is to state a position and then take lots and lots of words to explain why that is so. It is a technique that works to produce a sickness in the gut