Motive: Conviction

As more and more children come forward with accounts of abuse, we look at what the role the parents, police and expert child interviewers may have played.
This series was first released on 3 October 2023.
To see more images and details about Peter Ellis and the series, vist the RNZ website here.
What's happening for the 3 to 5 year old children at the centre of the investigation, some of whom are put through hours of questioning by professionals feeling their way in a relatively new field?
How could happy, healthy, innocent kids come up with such distressing, and at times wildly fantastical stories? Memory specialists and child psychologists discuss the merits of children's testimony.
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Peter Ellis is arrested and charged with child sexual abuse. Creche parents are panicked and horrified. But what has really been happening at the creche?
This series was first released on 2 October 2023.
To see more images and details about Peter Ellis and the series, vist the RNZ website here.
The day Peter turns 34 his house is searched for incriminating material to corroborate the accusations of paedophilia and when he's arrested, all the rumours are front page news.
A leading child sexual abuse expert reassures the public that there are processes in place to protect the children who are victims, but not all the parents buy into the accusations and seek to distance themselves and their children from the on-going investigation.
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As more and more children came forward with claims of sexual abuse, we ask whether international events were influencing the case in Christchurch.
This series was first released on 29 September 2023.
To see more images and details about Peter Ellis and the series, vist the RNZ website here.
As in similar cases a few years earlier in the US and Australia, rumours of ritual satanic abuse emerge amidst a rising tide of moral panic swirling around the beleaguered creche.
A second child makes an accusation and police activity amps up interviewing parents and engaging an expert to interview children. No one speaks to Peter - withdrawn, now unemployed and stunned by the accusations.
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There's fear and confusion after a child says 'I don't like Peter's black penis'. A second accusation causes the investigation to be ramped up.

To see more images and details about Peter Ellis and the series, vist the website here.
A child's comment to his mother that he 'doesn't like Peter's black penis' leads to Peter being suspended by his shocked supervisor and sets off the first depth charge beneath the community surrounding the creche
Were children being sexually abused there, could anxious parents get accurate information from their sons and daughters, and who might be responsible?
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Who was Peter Ellis, the childcare worker at the centre of the accusations and how did he come to work there? Meet people with many different connections to what was to become New Zealand's most notorious child sexual abuse case.

This series was first released on 29 September 2023.
To see more images and details about Peter Ellis and the series, vist the website here.
Who was Peter Ellis, the childcare worker at the centre of the accusations and how did he come to work there?
To set the scene, we meet people with many different connections to what was to become the most notorious child sexual abuse case in this country's history.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details