On the Friday before his death in 2019, Peter Ellis told John Campbell he survived the last three decades by laughing through the ordeal.
Moments later he choked back tears.
In 1993, Ellis was convicted of sexually abusing seven children in his care at Christchurch civic creche. He was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.
He always protested his innocence, even after two Court of Appeal hearings and a ministerial inquiry found the convictions stood.
In 2019, diagnosed with terminal cancer, he filed one last-ditch attempt to overturn the convictions in the Supreme Court.
He would die three years before the court cleared his name on October 7, 2022.
The week before his death Ellis said he was well aware he wouldn't live to see his name cleared.
"[But] I don't want to be a box and a shelf saying well he died, bad luck."
He acknowledged there's few things more terrible than being accused of child sex abuse.
"I've always laughed, laughed away through things, it's just part of what happened to me, I suppose, I just laughed my way through it."
A miscarriage of justice
Ellis' lawyer, Rob Harrison swore he would never let the case rest, carrying on the fight to clear his name even after his client's death.
"Because it's wrong, the conviction of Peter is wrong."
Harrison believed the accusations which included allegations of satanic ritual, were influenced by his client's identity as a gay man, with homosexual law reform only passing seven years prior in 1986.
"Up until then, someone like Peter, their life was an aberration, they could be prosecuted.
"Inherently there is a particular bias, even in the 90s, against gay men, that's got to be a part of it.
"I think we've gotta acknowledge that that may have played a part."
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