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The presence of Jan Galanders and Jan Crossen led to some families who'd initially refused the offer of interviews to change their minds.

The case had also become a big news story.

An initial suppression order that had kept Peter Ellis' name out of the media had been dropped and stories regularly ran about him.

Throughout winter, the number of complainants continued to grow until there were 20.

Roughly 8,000 pages of evidence had been received, with more to come.

Jeffrey Magnolia, the child whose initial comments sparked the case, had clammed up about the subject when interviewed by police, so he wasn't a complainant.

But he would occasionally still refer to Peter when talking to his mother.

One day in late June, he was walking with his parents when they passed the Masonic Lodge.

Jeffrey pointed at the building and said that Peter had taken him there.

A short while later, he pointed at a manhole cover on the road, remarking that Peter had pushed children inside to where there were caged gorillas underground.

Ms Magnolia was concerned about these remarks.

She began to keep lists of things such as this that Jeffrey said and notified detectives.

At the end of July, she walked Jeffrey past the Masonic Lodge again.

Once more, Jeffrey said he'd been there, along with a number of other places.

The botanic gardens, car parks, some hotels, hospitals and bridges, amongst many more.

Ms Magnolia noted all of these places on her lists as well as something else.

Descriptions of other people who had supposedly participated in the abuse.

These included bad men, some women, Maori men, a man with a ponytail, and Peter Ellis' mother.

Now, fear was starting to spread that Peter Ellis hadn't acted alone.

Another meeting was held where Detective Colin Eade and a colleague spoke to parents about these new allegations.