Christchurch Civic Creche Case: Satanic Panic and Child Abuse Allegations

The oldest complainant in the Christchurch Civic Creche case, now a grown woman, wife, and mother, says, “Peter was a goldfish in a shark tank. I was also in the shark tank. There was no empathy. It was an attack on an innocent man. It was an attack on the truth.”

She was considered the most credible witness against Peter Ellis, a childcare worker who was convicted and sentenced to 10 years for abusing children. Her testimony was so crucial that the lead detective in the Christchurch Police Child Abuse Unit told her parents the case would fail without it.

This same detective visited her parents at home one day, before Ellis's conviction, and he had been drinking. When her parents expressed doubts about the case, he told them if they didn't get their daughter to testify, they would be as “perverted as Peter Ellis” and responsible for a “filthy bastard kiddie #@## going free.” He then stormed out and slammed the door. The crown prosecutor also visited their home, wearing his wig, and after talking to them, the parents felt it was the right thing to go ahead with court.

Today, the daughter says, “I only have good memories of Peter Ellis and the Civic Creche. Peter never hurt me in any way or at any time.” She thinks back on the police and child expert interview process, remembering that after initially denying anything happened, she started to go along with it. She said, “At first it was a feeling of wanting to please the people by answering correctly. Gosh, kids love attention. I loved attention. There were rewards when I answered more questions. The more questions I answered ‘correctly’ the more my self esteem dropped.”

This all happened in the early 1990s in Christchurch, when there was a sense of hysteria about satanic ritual abuse. Across the globe, panic about childcare workers abusing children had been spreading, starting in California in the early 1980s and then to daycares in Canada, Brazil, and Europe. In New Zealand, visiting "experts" from overseas contributed to this, like American therapist Pamela Klein who described ritual abuse, and American paediatrician Dr. Astrid Heger, who had misdiagnosed mass child abuse in California. An Upper Hutt police officer also helped found the Ritual Action Network, which held workshops where attendees were told babies were being killed and eaten. This global phenomenon was later called “the satanic panic.”