Christchurch Civic Creche Case: Satanic Panic and Child Abuse Allegations

On June 9, 2022, Newsroom published an investigation into the story of a girl who was central to the Christchurch Civic Creche case. Her parents broke a 30-year silence to talk about how they became involved in one of New Zealand’s longest-running and most controversial legal sagas. This girl, now a grown woman, wife, and mother, is speaking publicly about what happened all those years ago. She describes Peter Ellis as a "goldfish in a shark tank" and herself as also being "in the shark tank," stating it was an attack on an innocent man and the truth. She told Newsroom that what happened to him was wrong and not fair.

She was the oldest and considered the most "compelling and believable" complainant in the case against Peter Ellis, a childcare worker who was convicted and sentenced to 10 years for abusing children. The lead detective at the Christchurch Police Child Abuse Unit told her parents the case would fail without her testimony. Her parents recounted how this detective, while drinking during a home visit before Ellis' conviction, told them they would be as "perverted as Peter Ellis" and responsible for a "filthy bastard kiddie going free" if they didn't get their daughter to testify. Her mother described him as so angry that he slammed the door, essentially saying they were as guilty as Peter Ellis if they didn't proceed. The crown prosecutor also visited their home, wearing his wig, and after talking to them, they felt it was the right thing to go to court.

Today, the daughter says she only has good memories of Peter Ellis and the Civic Creche, and that Peter never hurt her. To understand how things went wrong, it helps to know the climate at the time. In the early 1990s, Christchurch was gripped by talk of satanic ritual abuse, part of a global panic where thousands of accusations were made against childcare workers. In New Zealand, this included visiting "experts" like American therapist Pamela Klein, who was later found to have falsified her qualifications, and workshops where attendees were told babies were being killed and eaten. In 1991, a workshop in Christchurch reported clear evidence of devil worshippers practicing ritual sexual abuse against children. Two months later, American paediatrician Dr. Astrid Heger, who misdiagnosed mass child abuse in California, visited Christchurch for a training session. This global phenomenon was later called "the satanic panic."

The girl, who was nine when she attended the creche, now reflects on the police and child expert interview process. She said that after initially denying anything had happened, she went along with it, wanting to please people by answering "correctly." She mentioned getting rewards when she answered more questions, and that the more questions she answered "correctly," the more her self-esteem dropped. Her mother stated that her daughter didn’t disclose anything right away, but by the fourth or fifth interview, she began to talk about Ellis.