Peter Ellis' interview with Mike Hosking in August 2019

Weeks before he died, Peter Ellis told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking in an exclusive interview he was "feeling quite excited" about the impending Supreme Court hearing, but hoped to live to see it happen. After three decades, the Supreme Court has today called the investigation and Ellis' trial a miscarriage of justice, and quashed his convictions. It's found the evidence of an expert witness didn't inform the jury of other possible causes of the children's behaviour and simply shouldn't have been admitted. Ellis served seven years of a 10 year jail sentence. Over time, some convictions were overturned, but he died before the remaining 13 could be tested in the Supreme Court. "Somebody said to me 'it looks like the crèche case is pulling into the station' and I said 'well I hope my train isn't going out first',” he told Mike Hosking in August 2019. "It's taken a long time, but I am very optimistic.” Ellis was brought to tears when he spoke of what it had been like living with the convictions for all of these years, but he chose to focus on the positives. "I have friends I never knew I had and expert witnesses that turned up; people who read Lynley Hood's book A City Possessed; and other people who have stumbled upon their own things and had their own life experiences and suddenly realised 'oh Peter Ellis has been through something similar'," he said. "The North Canterbury community have looked after me. It's been 19 years since I have been out of jail and I can walk through my community and the children there call out to me. "They don't look at me in a different way anymore because they have actually known me and they trust in what they see." He said clearing his name is not only important to him, but all the people who have fought in his court over the years - some of whom have died. "It becomes important when the number of people who have supported me and helped me over the years that have passed away; the stories that haven't been told of parents that chose sides and their marriages broke up; the crèche children that didn't believe it happened – so there is that particular aspect of it. "There is also my mother who put her time into this - those people who have slipped away and have deserved an answer," he said. Ellis hoped that if he dies before the hearing, these people may still get closure. "I am hoping that the select committee might look at putting in something that would safeguard someone's right to still clear their name even when they have passed away," he said. "There should be a mechanism if someone has shown intent to push on with their case, worked hard on the case, was shown intent to go for compensation - that his family have the right to have his name cleared, as do I."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.