Peter Ellis.
His lawyer Rob Harrison said in a statement he slipped away peacefully today surrounded by his loving family and dear friends Stephen and Pam Fergusson.
Ellis, 61, served seven years of a 10 year jail sentence for abusing seven children at the Christchurch Civic Childcare Centre in 1991.
He had been convicted, after a trial in the High Court at Christchurch in 1993, of 16 counts of sexual offending.
Ellis was released from prison in 2000, but has always maintained his innocence.
In July the Supreme Court said it would hear Ellis' case
