11.00AM: A little-known Canadian psychologist who advised the inquiry into the child abuse conviction of gay Christchurch man Peter Ellis has been involved in another similar case which many Canadians have characterised as an anti-gay witch hunt. Peter Ellis Peter Ellis, variously described as flamboyantly camp and a little eccentric, served a ten year prison term rather than accept an offered pardon for a child abuse crimes he still says he did not commit. According to a feature article in the Weekend Herald, no one in the NZ Ministry of Justice can explain how Dr Louise Sas came to be considered for selection as an adviser to the Eichelbaum Inquiry which upheld Ellis's conviction in the Christchurch Civic Creche case, widely suspected to have been an anti-gay witch-hunt. Sas, who advised Justice Eichelbaum that the children's sometimes bizarre and often contradictory evidence was reliable, has limited experience as an independent adviser, but has been involved in child abuse prosecutions before, advising on the evidence of alleged child victims. Her name was not suggested by any of the parties to the Ellis case and she has apparently not published any peer-reviewed papers in the area of evidence based on children's memories. Sas has been involved in similar cases in Canada where her analysis of children's evidence as credible has been dismissed and the case thrown out of court. She was involved in one case which she characterised as indicative of "a multi-victim, multi-offender sex ring case which involved 60 young boys aged between 8 and 17 and 80 adult male offenders." After dozens of men were arrested and police conducted hundreds of interviews only two convictions, for videotaping youths aged 14 and older, resulted. Of the many psychologists who examined the interviews given by children for the Christchurch case, Sas is the only one who has stated that the children's evidence is reliable. Justice Eichelbaum could have appointed up to six advisers, but against numerous internationally renowned and published experts he inexplicably chose only Sas, plus one other, Leicester University psychology professor Graham Davies. Davies advised that he would not pronouce on guilt or otherwise or on the reliability of the creche childrens' evidence. Sas had previously advised against having a commission of inquiry into the Ellis case. Then-Attorney General Margaret Wilson is suspected of wanting the case consigned to history when she, too, urged cabinet not to initiate an inquiry.