Peter Ellis to press ahead with Privy Council appeal

Peter Ellis

Convicted paedophile Peter Ellis is pressing ahead with an appeal to the Privy Council over his 1993 convictions for abusing children.

Ellis' lawyer, Judith Ablett Kerr, QC, of Dunedin, said today she would apply for special leave to appeal to the Privy Council immediately despite having yet had no response from the Attorney-General on whether such an appeal should proceed.

The justice and electoral select committee recommended last August that the Attorney-General not oppose a bid by Ellis, who was convicted of sexually abusing children at the Christchurch Civic Childcare Centre where he worked. He served two-thirds of a 10-year jail sentence but has always maintained his innocence.

The committee also recommended legal aid be provided for the appeal.

Last September, Mrs Ablett Kerr said it appeared the Solicitor-General intended to ignore the committee's recommendations. She said it was the Solicitor-General's role to advise the Attorney-General whether a case should proceed.

Solicitor-General Terence Arnold had taken a "narrow and most disturbing" approach by requiring Ellis to satisfy him that his grounds for appeal involved a point of law of "exceptional public importance", Mrs Ablett Kerr said then.

Today, she acknowledged there had been "a lot of to-ing and fro-ing" between her and the Solicitor-General and the Attorney-General.

"But rather than delay matters any further, the decision has been taken to draft his petition and file it in London and get on with it," she said.

"We'll deal with the issue of whether the Solicitor-General wishes to follow the recommendation of the select committee at a later stage."

Delays in applying for leave to petition the Privy Council had been "incredibly debilitating" for Ellis, who was looking forward to progressing his appeal.

"We really do have to move it along," Mrs Ablett Kerr said. "We can't get held up by bureaucracy any longer. We just have to press on."

Mrs Ablett Kerr said Privy Council appeals took a "two-stage process" with the first part involving applying for special leave to appeal. She hoped this would be completed by July or October.

The Privy Council did not sit in August or September -- its vacation period.

"If we get through that part of the process they will put it off to hear the appeal proper," she said.

"I would like to think that would be before the end of this year."

Mrs Ablett Kerr said she imagined Ellis' petition might be the last appeal the Privy Council heard from New Zealand.

- NZPA