New Zealand childcare worker and wrongfully convicted prisoner Peter Ellis was BOTD in 1958. Born in Christchurch, he left school in his teens, working in various jobs before being prosecuted for benefit fraud. His sentence of community service was carried out at the Christchurch Civic Creche, where he became a childcare worker. Openly bisexual, he had relationships with men and women, and was noted for his sexual openness and occasionally risqué behaviour. In 1992, he and four female colleagues were charged with multiple counts of child sexual abuse, following a series of claims by the children’s mothers about Satanic abuse rituals at the creche. Despite a lack of forensic evidence, Ellis was convicted on 16 counts of abuse and sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment. His homosexuality formed a key part of the prosecution’s argument, presenting him as sexually promiscuous and perverted, with corollaries drawn between his (adult, consenting) sexual behaviour and some of the more bizarre alleged abuses. Three of his convictions were subsequently withdrawn after the child complainant admitted that her mother had told her what to say. Ellis served seven years of his sentence, maintaining his innocence and bringing a series of unsuccessful appeals to overturn his conviction. Post-release, he lived as a recluse in North Canterbury, unable to find work due to being registered as a sex offender. Public opinion turned in his favour following Lynley Hood’s 2001 book, A City Possessed, arguing that he was the victim of homophobia and a moral panic about sexual abuse. Despite growing support from journalists and legal commentators, Ellis’ convictions were upheld. He died of cancer in 2019, aged 61, midway through another appeal. In 2022, New Zealand’s Supreme Court overturned all his convictions, identifying substantial miscarriages of justice in his trial and conviction. His case is thought to have contributed to a substantial decrease in men working in early childhood education in New Zealand, and prompted legal reform in the use of evidence by children in criminal trials.