The Stories Behind the Civic Creche Case

RNZ’s new podcast investigates the stories behind the Civic Creche Case. Image draws inspiration from cover page of North and South magazine, November 2015

Reporter

RNZ presents Conviction, a new podcast about the Civic Creche case and the people at the centre of it in a story that cast ripples across Aotearoa’s legal landscape for three decades.

The story begins in 1990s Christchurch when a four-year-old boy at a council-owned creche, makes the comment, “I don’t like Peter’s black penis” which would propel 30-year-old childcare worker Peter Ellis into a nightmare - spending seven years in prison for crimes he says he did not commit. 

Yet the children and families who accused Ellis are adamant he committed the crimes and the results of his actions will be with them forever. 

In this 12-part series hosted by Alexander Behse and Ali Jones take a comprehensive look back over the case, and some stories never told before, including interviews with Ellis' siblings and parole officer.

Executive producer and co-host Behse says his motivation behind making the podcast was to understand the pain everyone went through. "Nobody won in this story. All I can see are people becoming hurt and damaged on all sides.”

Tim Watkin, RNZ Executive Editor, Podcasts says there is more behind this well-known case than people realise.

"[There’s] the moral panic, contamination of testimony, certainty of guilt or innocence on both sides, the question of who to believe. We’ve spent five years, scoured the archives and [have] done about 50 interviews,” Watkins says of the podcast, which “doesn’t take sides”.

The first three episodes of Conviction will be released on Friday 29 September at rnz.co.nz/conviction and podcast platforms, with a new episode every weekday and on RNZ National every Sunday after the 7pm news.

Conviction was made with thanks to NZ On Air and Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision.