Anonymous Host

Debbie Gillespie was 29 years old and wore long, flowing dresses.

She had been at the creche for four years and was the head of its nursery, looking after the youngest children.

Although three of these women were mothers, they were never investigated for possible abuse against their own children, nor deemed unsafe for their children to be around.

On Monday November 2 1992, one month after the women's arrest, a deposition hearing for all five defendants began.

Both sides would make their cases before a judge who would determine if there was enough evidence to proceed to the High Court.

The defendants were facing a total of 60 charges of sexual offending against 20 children.

Peter Ellis had been charged with 26 counts of indecent assault, 12 counts of sexual violation, 6 counts of inducing an indecent act and 1 count of performing an indecent act in a public place.

Gay Davidson, Marie Keys and Janice Buckingham were each facing 3 counts of indecent assault and 1 count of sexual violation for assaulting children during the Circle incident.

Debbie Gillespie was charged with one count of indecent assault, one of sexual violation and one of public indecency.

It had been alleged by a child that she and Peter Ellis had had sex on the Crachers' bathroom floor.

An angry crowd had gathered outside the court to make their feelings about the defendants known.

There was no doubt in their minds that all five were guilty of unspeakable acts.

But inside the court, very few people were present.

There were so many potential witnesses in the case that most people even tangentially connected to it were expecting to be called as witnesses.

They wouldn't be able to sit in the public gallery until they had given their evidence.

But the media was allowed to stay.

In the end, only 47 out of 92 potential Crown witnesses were called to give evidence, meaning almost half wouldn't be testifying.

Nevertheless, it took 11 weeks to complete the deposition hearing, which was a slow and arduous process.

It began with roughly 40 hours of videotaped interviews of the children being screened in court.

Then the DSW interviewers were called upon to give evidence.