Peter Ellis

childcare worker

Peter Ellis was a Christchurch childcare worker who became the center of one of New Zealand's most controversial legal cases. In 1993, he was convicted on multiple counts of child sexual abuse, a verdict he maintained was wrongful throughout his life. After serving seven years in prison, Ellis continued to fight for his innocence, facing numerous unsuccessful appeals. Tragically, he passed away from bladder cancer in 2019, shortly before the Supreme Court agreed to hear his final appeal posthumously. In a landmark decision in 2022, the court found that Ellis had suffered a substantial miscarriage of justice due to flawed expert testimony and issues regarding the reliability of the children's memories, ultimately exonerating him and highlighting significant flaws in the judicial process.