PeterEllis.org.nz
Media Release
4 December 2006

Thank you, Frank Haden

It is with sadness that we have learned that Frank Haden has reluctantly hung up his pen, and will write no more, peterellis.org spokesperson Brian Robinson says.

In a news report by Mike Crean, we are reminded that if one thing infuriates Frank Haden, it is "bull..." Frank is quoted saying "I have spent my life battling bull... There's a lot of it about ­ a whole bull... industry". Frank has battled well, and New Zealanders have benefited from his analysis on a whole range of topics.

We are particularly indebted to Frank for his willingness to speak his mind on the Christchurch Civic Creche case in which Peter Ellis was wrongly convicted. Frank had a healthy skepticism about the case from the beginning, which allowed him to see through the moral panic and absurd belief in junk science by those he labelled as the "Druids of the sex abuse industry" He was one of very few commentators who met with Peter and other creche staff, personally viewed creche premises and availed himself of much background information.

In 1993, Frank labelled Peter Ellis as "infamously imprisoned and manifestly innocent". By 1996, Frank said "The continued incarceration of Ellis ranks with the greatest miscarriages of justice ever perpetrated". It is hard to remember now in 2006 what such a stance then implied. Frank fully realised, expecting and even welcoming his share of "abusive mail and phone calls from the shock troops of the sex abuse industry".

Thank you Frank.

ENDS

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