Dear Ministry of Justice,

I have the following request to assist me in my research of the Peter Ellis/Christchurch Civic Creche case.

In 2017, approximately how many lawyers that were seconded to, employed, hired, contracted to or paid by the Justice Ministry made a declaration of a possible or actual conflict of interest? Please note this request includes those who stated they had no conflict of interest to declare.

In 2002, Val Sim, then chief legal counsel at the Justice Ministry, informed then Justice Minister Phil Goff: “The [Peter] Ellis case has been the subject of a good deal of public anxiety and concern created largely by the media portrayal of the case, and more recently reinforced by Ms [Lynley] Hood’s book. However, it needs to be remembered that neither the media nor Ms Hood have had access to all of the evidence and in particular have not had the advantage of seeing the children give their evidence.”

How many (if any) of the complainants’ evidential interviews had Ms Sim viewed before she made that comment? How many (if any) transcripts of the complainants’ evidential interviews had she read? Had she read Dr Michael Lamb’s affidavits that were written in 1999? If so, please send me copies of emails, comments, notes, etc she wrote about those affidavits.

When did Sir Thomas Thorp’s report, supplied to officials on 28 March 1999, become publicly available? Please send me all records held about the release of Thorp’s report, including communication with then Justice Minister Phil Goff who claimed, in March 2000, that it was not in the public interest to release Thorp’s report. How long did it take for Sir Thomas Eichelbaum's report, dated 28 February 2001, to become publicly available? Please provide a link to both reports from the Ministry’s website.

Yours faithfully,

Ross Francis