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Peter Ellis, the Creche Case & Me

Episode 5: The trial

Ep. 5
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It is June 1993 and the night before the verdict in a case that has consumed the nation with its far-fetched claims of satanic rituals and children being sexually abused with needles and sticks. Accused childcare worker Peter Ellis spends it with young reporter Melanie Reid, recording the very last of their remarkable clandestine interviews in his flat, hours from finding out whether he will be locked away.


Presented by award-winning Newsroom Investigates editor Melanie Reid. Discover more at Newsroom.co.nz.

More episodes

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  • 1. Episode 1: Unbelievable

    24:51||Ep. 1
    In this shocking first episode, we take you into early 1990s Christchurch with its conservatism, white power gangs - and claims that satanic cults and ritual abuse might be occurring under everyone’s noses. Presented by award-winning Newsroom Investigates editor Melanie Reid. Discover more at Newsroom.co.nz.

  • 2. Episode 2: Peter Arrested

    24:03||Ep. 2
    When Detective Colin Eade and a core group of parents call an urgent meeting, the flames of fear become a bonfire – Eade is convinced Ellis is not acting alone and that at least 10 other offenders are also involved.Presented by award-winning Newsroom Investigates editor Melanie Reid. Discover more at Newsroom.co.nz.

  • 3. Episode 3: Police and panic

    25:06||Ep. 3
    Up to five children a day are being seen at the police Child Abuse Unit, some put through multiple evidential interviews. The panic spreads through the families, and parents are ballistic with fear - a frenzy being led by therapists and police.Presented by award-winning Newsroom Investigates editor Melanie Reid. Discover more at Newsroom.co.nz.

  • 4. Episode 4: Four women arrested

    25:55||Ep. 4
    The belief that a ring of child sex abusers made up of a young gay creche worker and four women living normal suburban lives seizes the imaginations of Christchurch’s establishment. Police raid the homes of the women, trawling a backyard goldfish pond, climbing up into rooves and emptying family board games, before arresting and charging them with a raft of offences.Presented by award-winning Newsroom Investigates editor Melanie Reid. Discover more at Newsroom.co.nz.

  • 6. Episode 6: Prison

    31:42||Ep. 6
    As Peter Ellis sits in prison, developments in the case keep coming. A year after he is convicted, the star child witness retracts her testimony saying she was never abused by Ellis at all. Meanwhile a prominent conservative politician does a U-turn and the top cop at the centre of the case admits to multiple affairs with complainant mothers and a social worker.Presented by award-winning Newsroom Investigates editor Melanie Reid. Discover more at Newsroom.co.nz.

  • 7. Episode 7: The author vs everyone

    22:26||Ep. 7
    An incendiary new book on the Christchurch Civic Creche case incriminates an establishment that refuses to look at the big picture – not just the police and the investigators, but the judiciary and parliament as well. It reveals flawed processes, interviewing techniques and investigators at the heart of a totally unsound investigation, but it doesn’t change a thing for Ellis.Presented by award-winning Newsroom Investigates editor Melanie Reid. Discover more at Newsroom.co.nz.

  • 8. Episode 8: The girl who retracted

    25:20||Ep. 8
    What has life been like for the girl described as the most credible and compelling witness who then retracted and said the abuse never happened - only to be disbelieved and ignored by the same establishment? And in this heartbreaking final episode, Peter Ellis makes his last legal stand in a three decades fight against power and politics.Presented by award-winning Newsroom Investigates editor Melanie Reid. Discover more at Newsroom.co.nz.

  • 9. Bonus episode: Pyrrhic victory

    20:39||Ep. 9
    In this special bonus episode we talk to Peter Ellis' sister, Tania, about what has happened since the Supreme Court quashed her brother’s convictions. A year on, has his family received an apology from the government for the miscarriage of justice? And what about Peter’s four women co-workers whose lives were turned upside down for decades when they were also charged with child abuse and then discharged in the early 1990s?