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She had seen Peter eat gherkins before.

Once she'd had one in her lunchbox and Peter had come along and stolen it.

As the children disclosed these alleged abuses, some were referred for specialist paediatric examinations.

None of these medical examinations resulted in definitive evidence of sexual abuse and none of the children were found to have any sexually transmitted illnesses.

One child reportedly had possible scarring around her anus which the examiner said was supportive of the allegation of sexual abuse.

A few children were described as having redness, inflammation and minor irritation.

By the end of March, five children had made formal allegations of sexual abuse by Peter Ellis.

Geoffrey Magnolia, the child whose comments had sparked the initial investigation, was not one of them.

Despite never obtaining a disclosure from the original complainant, Detective Colin Eade was ready to make an arrest.

Monday March 30 1992 was Peter Ellis' 34th birthday.

That morning, Detective Ede and four other officers from the Child Abuse Unit arrived on his doorstep armed with a search warrant.

Peter was arrested while officers began searching his home for documents, photographs or videos relating to the sexual abuse of children.

They recovered nothing, despite returning again on another occasion to rip up the floorboards.

While Peter's home was being searched for evidence, he was transferred to the police station for questioning.

Peter informed the police that he couldn't help them before calling his lawyer.

In the presence of his attorney, he answered more questions and listened as details of the allegations were put before him.

Peter pointed out some errors in the children's claims, such as one girl describing him as wearing pairs of striped and spotted shorts, which he didn't own.

Detective Colony disregarded this, stating, So she hasn't got the clothes completely right.

That still takes us to the statements about the touching of her vagina.

Did you ever do that?