Supreme Court finds new allegation of abuse against Peter Ellis inadmissible as evidence

A bid from the Crown to have an additional allegation of abuse against Peter Ellis admitted as evidence in the upcoming hearing for his appeal has been dismissed. Photo / NZH

A bid from the Crown to have an additional allegation of abuse against Peter Ellis admitted as evidence in the upcoming hearing for his appeal has been dismissed.

The proposed evidence was an affidavit from a woman in which she said Ellis sexually
assaulted her in 1982 or 1983 when she was a child and Ellis was her babysitter.

The Crown also applied to adduce other supporting material related to the affidavit.

The Supreme Court has dismissed the Crown's application and ruled that the proposed evidence is inadmissible, in a judgment released on Wednesday.

Reasons for this decision will be provided in two to three weeks' time.

Ellis was convicted on 16 charges of sexual offending against seven children in 1993.

He appealed twice to the Court of Appeal, the second time after a referral by the Governor-General. The first appeal quashed three of the convictions.

The second appeal against the remaining 13 convictions was dismissed in 1999 but Ellis was granted leave to appeal against the remaining convictions by the Supreme Court in 2019.

Ellis died in September 2019 but the court decided the appeal should continue.