What are some of the facts?

2007-04-01T02:11:00.000-07:00

This blog has been created to inform people about some of the facts and information which haven't been suppressed in relation to the historic rape allegations and trials, via media articles and reporting.

No information on here is in any breach of any suppression order and this information is all freely available and open to the public as it is all referenced to media articles. It is also available on other websites.

All the articles on here are in chronological order, with the latest being at the top and oldest down the bottom or archived. I suggest taking a look at some of the earlier archived articles if you would like to see some of the background/ build up to the current situation.

Gossip fuels trial by the masses

2006-04-08T18:55:00.000-07:00

The Dominion Post
Gossip fuels trial by the masses
08 April 2006
By REBECCA PALMER

The trial was over in the courtroom but in the streets, via e-mail and on the Internet, it was just warming up.

Information kept from the jury at the Louise Nicholas case spread quickly throughout New Zealand after the not guilty verdicts were delivered in the High Court at Auckland last week.
Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards and former policemen Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton were acquitted on all 20 sex charges.

At the end of the trial, Justice Tony Randerson ordered that widespread suppression orders made at the start would continue. Internet bulletin boards and chatrooms may need to be monitored, he said.

He was correct, but it was old-fashioned tactics that grabbed attention. On Monday, a group of women handed out 1600 leaflets breaching the suppression orders to commuters at Wellington railway station. Spokeswoman Grace Millar said the orders had meant important prosecution evidence was not presented in court.

The leaflets were modified after the group was approached by police. Others were later handed out at the University of Auckland and in Christchurch's Cathedral Square.

And if the leaflets were not enough, mass e-mails dramatically sped up the flow of the offending information. The text of the leaflet was copied into an e-mail and circulated. At least one other bulk e-mail has done the rounds.

Ms Millar says she does not know who was responsible for either e-mail. "Certainly people have done things with the leaflet that we wrote that we didn't anticipate."

Meanwhile, people have been discussing the orders through Internet news groups, blogs, message boards and chatrooms. The Nicholas case has again highlighted that the bigger the trial the better the chance that secret details will emerge.

Last July, the country was abuzz at news that television stars were embroiled in a "white collar" drug bust in Auckland. By the time the media was allowed to identify the key players – former All Black Marc Ellis and league star Brent Todd – it seemed the entire country already knew, courtesy of e-mails.

Within days of charges being laid, the gossip had even hit the stock market – shares in Ellis' Charlie's juice company fell 33 per cent.

Why do the courts suppress some information?

Name suppression is automatic for some people, such as the victims of sex crimes (unless the court permits publication) and those accused of incest. Judges can suppress other names and details to avoid a trial being prejudiced.

University of Canterbury media law expert Professor John Burrows says that though suppression orders could sometimes be made "very quickly" when people first appeared in the district court, those made in the High Court were likely to be carefully considered and made with good reason.

"People who don't know the reason take a real risk if they try and breach the order."
Police national e-crime manager Maarten Kleintjes says suppression orders are made to ensure people receive fair trials or to protect witnesses.

"The court doesn't put these suppression orders in place for a joke. They are there for a serious reason and people should respect that."

Media organisations have the right to appeal against suppression orders and are sometimes successful.

What are the dangers in breaching a suppression order?

People who breach a suppression order can face a $1000 fine for each offence. They cannot be arrested but can be summoned before the court.

Professor Burrows says it has been suggested that if a breach was deliberate, "it could be a lot higher than that. That's never been tested in New Zealand".

Offenders can also face contempt of court charges, which can carry a fine or a jail term. Police are gathering evidence about this week's suppression breaches, both by electronic and leaflet methods. Complaints have also been received by the office of Solicitor-General Terence Arnold, QC, which decides whether to take action on contempt of court in association with the judiciary.
Canterbury University senior law lecturer Ursula Cheer, a colleague of Professor Burrows, says the pamphlets circulated by the women are also potentially defamatory. "To suggest that somebody is guilty of an offence when they have been found not to be could fall into that category."

Professor Burrows says prosecutions for breaching suppressions are pretty rare in New Zealand. "The main reason for that is the media are usually pretty responsible about it."
He was not aware of any prosecutions resulting from breaches on the Internet, though there had been successful defamation cases.

A Crown Law spokeswoman says warnings for contempt are more common than prosecutions. Media organisations are sometimes warned about pre-trial publicity being potentially prejudicial to a court case.

"This is a bit more unusual because these people have been passing out pamphlets."

Who polices the Internet?

It appears no one in New Zealand is dedicated to monitoring it. But government agencies, including Crown Law, say offending material will come to their attention through media monitoring and word-of-mouth.

Mr Kleintjes says police do not monitor the Internet to search for name suppression breaches, or other offending material. "It is conceivable in future that there is a branch of police that walks the beat in cyberspace, if you like. As far as I know, there's nothing in place like that at the moment."

Cyber police are among options being considered in an Economic Development Ministry discussion paper.

Mr Kleintjes says police investigate if they come across offending electronic material or if someone complains, as with other types of offending. The e-crime unit collected data and carried out forensic investigations when asked. "We could be asked to track down where an e-mail came from – that would be within our line of work."

The unit has so far not worked on any suppression cases, though it has traced the origins of abusive and threatening e-mails, he says.

So to whom was Justice Randerson directing his comments when he said the Internet might have to be monitored for suppression breaches?

Judiciary communications adviser Neil Billington says the comments would have been directed at the Crown prosecutors. "It's not the responsibility of the courts, the judge or the Justice Ministry to actively monitor this." Judges would generally act on "contempt in the face of the court" if it arose during a trial.

During the Nicholas case, two members of the public were held in contempt by Justice Randerson – a woman who spoke to a juror and a man who breached a court order.
Mr Billington says that in other instances, a wider investigation by police or advice from the solicitor-general could be required.

In many cases, website moderators and owners monitor material because they could be culpable for anything that breaches the law. One, David Farrar, posted a warning on his kiwiblog website to other users about contempt of court in the case.

Everyone else is breaching the orders, so surely I won't get in trouble?
No one seems sure what will happen next but it seems best not to test that theory. "Would you feel safe driving through a red light because hundreds of other people do that?" Mr Kleintjes said.

Professor Burrows says posting information on the Internet is a form of publication and people who posted suppressed information were liable "like anyone else".

Sharing juicy information with a friend via e-mail was more dangerous than verbal gossip because an e-mail left a trail of evidence.

"I think anyone who sends an e-mail now knows it may get to more than the person it was sent to."

Mr Farrar, who is also the vice-president of Internet society InternetNZ, says much information posted on the Internet is "fairly easy" to trace.

He wasn't confident that authorities would turn a blind eye to the breaches. "I think if the authorities don't take any action, it's going to send out a pretty bad signal."
So are suppression orders now pointless?

"I think there's almost no point in cases involving famous people," Mr Farrar says. "Perhaps for a week or so if you need to hold things up."

High Court judge Justice John Wild said last year that it was "stupid" and "futile" to try to keep information suppressed once it was on the Internet.

He made the comments while outlining his reasons for lifting a suppression order on the "Butcher Report" on the Berryman bridge collapse. Lawyer Rob Moodie had posted the report on the Internet to support his clients, retired farmers Keith and Margaret Berryman.

Law Commission deputy president Warren Young said this week it was "much too simplistic" to say that suppression orders were redundant just because the Internet had increased the number of breaches. "It is very difficult to control through the Internet . . . but that does not mean that they have no effect at all."

Professor Burrows says the issue has to be considered in the context of the number of orders made in the courts. "There's a whole lot of suppressions. The problem mainly arises if there's a celebrity or a really infamous case." If authorities were able to track an offender down, "it's certainly not pointless".

And despite all the fuss, many people did not care enough to go looking for the information. "I don't think most people can be bothered. Most aren't particularly interested."

Suppression breaches 'very serious'

2006-04-08T18:51:00.000-07:00

The Dominion Post
Suppression breaches 'very serious'
08 April 2006
By REBECCA PALMER

The justice system could be undermined if no action is taken against those who spread suppressed information about the Louise Nicholas case, the head of the Criminal Bar Association says.

Association president Peter Winter said the breaches were very serious. "It calls into question the rule of law and has the potential to undermine the justice system."

Groups in Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch have handed out leaflets about the case. E-mails containing suppressed material have also been circulating.

They include information kept from the jury that acquitted Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards and former policemen Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton of 20 sex charges relating to Mrs Nicholas' allegations.

Mr Winter said the spread of suppressed information was unfair to the jurors in the trial and would be difficult for them to hear about.

"Those matters were deemed for good reason by the trial judge not to be matters which needed to be placed before the jury."

People who circulated such information often did not realise that suppression orders were made not just to protect the accused, but also the complainants.

Police are gathering information about breaches and the solicitor-general is considering the issue of contempt of court.

Suppression orders could be lifted - internet lawyer

2006-04-07T12:23:00.000-07:00

Radio New Zealand
Suppression orders could be lifted - internet lawyer
Posted at 12:23pm on 7 Apr 2006

A Wellington barrister who specialises in internet law, says court suppression orders about the Louise Nicholas rape case could be lifted, because so many people are now aware of the suppressed information.

Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards and two former officers Bob Schollum and Bradley Shipton were last Friday found not guilty by an Auckland High Court jury on 20 rape and sexual assault charges.

Since then pamphlets, faxes and now emails containing information suppressed by the court, have been widely distributed.

Lawyers for Mr Shipton and Mr Schollom have written to police to ask them how they plan to deal with the situation.

But Internet law specialist, Peter Dengate-Thrush, says once the information is out there it is very difficult to get it back, and the view of the courts is that once it is in the public domain, they will not longer maintain suppression orders.

And he says because the information is being forwarded by personal email it could mean thousands of people would have to be prosecuted.

Police investigate but no action yet taken

Although police are investigating the possible breach of suppression orders; so far no action has been taken against those known to have handed out the pamphlets.

National's Justice Spokesperson, Richard Worth says that is not good enough; and that by not acting immediately, the Crown is encouraging people to continue spreading suppressed information.

Criminal Bar Association president, Peter Winter, says lawyers would support making an example of those who have spread the information.

Police are collating information about the matter and a legal opinion will be sought.

Contempt of court

The issue of contempt of court is being dealt with separately by the Solicitor-General's office.
The issue raises questions about the point of suppression orders in high profile cases - given that information spreads so easily via the internet.

Until this week; a suppression order prevented television presenter Lana Co-croft being identified in relation to a celebrity drug scandal last year in Auckland. But her name had already been spread via email and word of mouth since the scandal first broke.

The offence of breaching suppression orders carries a $1,000 maximum fine, and does not carry a term of imprisonment.

Contempt of court charges are far more serious: under Section 9 of the Crimes Act, there is no maximum sentence for the charge. This means anyone prosecuted for contempt in this case could face a prison term.

Nicholas suppression-order violators encourage others to join in

2006-04-07T04:11:00.000-07:00

Nicholas suppression-order violators encourage others to join in
07.04.06
By Louisa Cleave

A Christchurch group involved in handing out pamphlets breaching suppression orders in the Louise Nicholas case hope there will be less chance of prosecution if more people spread the information.

Two sets of leaflets were handed out in Cathedral Square and outside the Christchurch central police station.

One contained information that was suppressed during the trial and another pledged support for Mrs Nicholas and a Wellington group who broke suppression orders this week.

Activist Frances Martin said those involved in the Christchurch leaflet drop were connected to the Wellington group.

Suppressed information was also handed out at University of Auckland on Wednesday. "We're in contact with [Wellington] and have been talking about the legal repercussions of it quite extensively," said Ms Martin.

"There was concern that handing out the suppressed information would have a negative impact for victims of rape so we were really concerned about that.

"But in the end we know the information is out in the public anyway, it's on the internet and easy to get hold of. We think the more people handing out the information the less likely there will be charges laid against the women doing it in Wellington."

People who breach suppression orders can be charged by police with breaching a suppression order but they can also face contempt charges if the judge who imposed the orders decides to take action.

The offence of breaching suppression orders carries a fine of $1000. A complaint has been lodged with police over the Wellington pamphlets but no one has yet been charged.

Ms Martin said the group did not hand out many pamphlets but there was "unbelievable" public support.

People had a choice of handing out the pamphlet without suppressed information, "because some people don't have time to be in court". Pamphlets also appeared to be circulating in Dunedin yesterday.

Email campaign spreads Nicholas case details

2006-04-07T04:06:00.000-07:00

NZPA
Email campaign spreads Nicholas case details
07.04.06 7.55am

An email delivered from a bogus address is spreading suppressed information from the Louise Nicholas rape case around the country.

The email is the latest in a campaign by protesters to highlight alleged injustices in the case. Pamphlets breaching suppression orders relating to the trial have already been distributed in Wellington and Auckland in support of Ms Nicholas.

Yesterday, they hit Christchurch. The email includes information that was kept from the jury that acquitted three men of 20 sex charges relating to Mrs Nicholas' allegations, The Dominion Post reported today.

Police Assistant Commissioner Clint Rickards and former policemen Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton were last week cleared of offences alleged to have occurred in Rotorua 20 years ago.

Barrister Peter Dengate Thrush, an internet law specialist, told the newspaper the bulk emailing of court-suppressed information was something he had never previously encountered.

He said current law governing breach of court order suppression was tailored towards media organisations, or individuals distributing leaflets.

"The question is how can the law adapt to apply to hundreds and thousands of small operators who download this information on the internet or forward bulk emails."

The email admits forwarding it would breach suppression orders and encourages recipients to do so in an untraceable way to "honour the bravery of Louise Nicholas".

Mr Thrush said people who received the email were not breaching the suppression order, but as soon as it was forwarded or printed, it constituted republication.

Evidence suppressed in rape trial turns up on campus

2006-04-06T04:16:00.000-07:00

NZ Herald
Evidence suppressed in rape trial turns up on campus
06.04.06
By Elizabeth Binning

Suppression orders relating to the Louise Nicholas case have been breached again, this time in Auckland - just around the corner from where the high-profile rape case was heard.

Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards and former police officers Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton were last week cleared of the historic sexual allegations made by Ms Nicholas.

Yesterday morning, around 200 pamphlets, detailing information suppressed during the trial, were distributed at Auckland University.

Part of the pamphlet said: "This information is being disseminated in Wellington by a group of concerned women. I believe that they should be congratulated for their stance and that they should be supported."

The contents of the pamphlets were then debated on the university quad in front of about 80 students who voted to support the illegal distribution of the pamphlets earlier in the day as a "show of solidarity".

Political activist Nick Keesing, who organised the pamphlet drop, said he wanted to support the Wellington women who had distributed 1600 similar pamphlets on Monday.

The students also resolved to support the Wellington women's cause. They seemed unaware that those in Wellington have agreed to stop spreading suppressed information after being spoken to by police.

Authorities are already investigating the breach of suppression that occurred and breaches that have allegedly occurred on the internet and radio. Mr Schollum's lawyer Paul Mabey said news of yesterday's pamphlet drop increased his concern about the suppression breaches.

Auckland City Police spokeswoman Noreen Hegarty said she was not aware of any complaints in relation to yesterday's pamphlet drop. Mr Keesing said he did not fear the repercussions of breaching suppression and would fight any such charges or fines in court.

Breaches of Nicholas case suppression spread further

2006-04-06T04:14:00.000-07:00

NZPA
Breaches of Nicholas case suppression spread further
06.04.06 1.00pm

More pamphlets breaching suppression orders relating to the Louise Nicholas police rape trial, are likely to be circulated in Christchurch today.

A third group has said it will follow protest action in Wellington earlier this week and in Auckland yesterday, and distribute pamphlets containing suppressed information.

Pamphlets were distributed in Wellington and Auckland in support of Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas, who claimed Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards and former police officers Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum raped and sexually abused her when she was an 18-year-old in Rotorua 20 years ago.

The three men were acquitted on all 20 charges by a jury of seven women and five men last week. Justice Tony Randerson imposed suppression orders relating to some evidence and issues relating to the case.

He also expressed his concern at apparent breaches of his suppression orders during the trial by material which appeared on the internet and asked for more details at another hearing within the next few weeks.

In Wellington earlier this week pamphlets containing suppressed information were circulated although they were later modified to remove some of the information after the women distributing them were approached by police.

At the University of Auckland yesterday, more pamphlets were circulated, also containing suppressed information before the issue was debated on the university quad by nearly 100 students who said they supported the Wellington women's cause.

A group of Christchurch women and men said today they would distribute pamphlets in Cathedral Square containing suppressed information. They said their action was in support of Louise Nicholas and the Wellington women.

The Christchurch group claimed justice was not served in the trial. People who breach suppression orders can be charged by police with breaching a suppression order but they can also face contempt charges if the judge who imposed the orders decides to take action.

A complaint has been lodged with police but no one has yet been charged.

It is believed the Solicitor-General Terence Arnold, QC, may also be involved. The Solicitor-General is considered the Government's principal legal adviser and a judge can raise an issue such as a breach of a suppression order, with him.

Lawyers for two of the three acquitted men would not comment today although Paul Mabey, QC, yesterday said the apparent breach of the suppression orders was a real concern.

The Auckland pamphlets were organised by political activist Nick Keesing who said he did not fear the repercussions of breaching the court orders and would fight charges in court.

No more Nicholas fliers - for now

2006-04-05T19:00:00.000-07:00

The Dominion Post
No more Nicholas fliers - for now
05 April 2006
By LANE NICHOLS

A group of women under investigation by police and the solicitor-general for breaching court-ordered suppressions from the Louise Nicholas case have stopped distributing leaflets on legal advice.

The women, who handed out 1600 leaflets on Monday at Wellington railway station, took to Manners Mall yesterday with an amended leaflet.

They also protested with banners in central Wellington, saying they had been inundated with messages of support, some from rape victims.

The action was in support of Mrs Nicholas after Friday's acquittals of Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards and former policemen Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton on rape and sexual assault charges.

Group spokeswoman Grace Millar said the women met lawyers yesterday and had made an "interim decision" to stop distributing the pamphlets.

Ms Millar stressed it was not for fear of being prosecuted. Lawyers had advised them not to make police statements.

Group members were meeting last night to decide on their possible next move and were considering rewriting the leaflets.

"The advice generally is we probably won't be handing out any more fliers at the moment," Ms Millar said.

She said the suppressed information, which could not be presented during the 10-day Auckland trial, was already in the public domain.

The women – one of whom had a young child – were apprehensive about facing potential prison sentences, but believed Mrs Nicholas' allegations and were prepared for the consequences, Ms Millar said.

"We don't regret it. People keep asking me whether I'm prepared to go to prison.
"In the scale of things, it's not the worst thing that could happen in the world."

Detective Senior Sergeant Simon Perry said police had asked for a copy of the suppression orders from the trial at the High Court at Auckland and had one of the leaflets.

They were yet to speak to the group but planned to do so as part of the inquiry.

"We will be continuing to gather possible evidence and watch where, when and how the leaflets are being distributed, and who is involved in their distribution."

The penalty for breaching a suppression order is a fine of up to $1000. Contempt of court carries an open-ended penalty, which can include a fine or a jail term.

Rape trial inquiry extends to internet, radio

2006-04-05T04:20:00.000-07:00

NZ Herald
Rape trial inquiry extends to internet, radio
05.04.06
By Angela Gregory

Authorities are investigating alleged breaches of suppression orders relating to the Louise Nicholas rape case - not just in pamphlets handed out by a Wellington vigilante group, but also on the internet and radio.

The breaches are causing concern in relation to the High Court trial which last week cleared Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards and former police officers Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton of historical sex allegations by Mrs Nicholas.

Mr Shipton's lawyer, Bill Nabney, confirmed he had laid complaints with the police over the actions of the Wellington group and other incidents involving the internet and radio broadcasts. "They are investigating."

The Herald yesterday viewed two internet sites which discussed matters under suppression orders, although by late afternoon the material was removed from one of those sites.

On Monday, about 1600 pamphlets containing suppressed material were handed out at the Wellington Railway Station and in Cuba Mall.

A spokeswoman for the distributors, Emma Wills, said the group had since decided to stop circulating the flyers after being spoken to by police.

Officers had given information which caused them to change their minds about carrying on, she said.

Ms Wills denied that showed they were reckless to have taken the action in the first place and said they would have just done things differently. "We had sought legal advice."

Instead the group was distributing a new leaflet which did not breach any suppression orders. Ms Wills said they had had only positive feedback from passersby, many of whom already knew what had been suppressed.

She thought it unlikely their action would lead to a contempt of court charge and possible jail.

Professor John Burrows, a media law specialist at Canterbury University, said whether a breach of a suppression order would lead to a charge of contempt of court was a complex question.
Breaches were usually accidental, he said, and even if deliberate were not necessarily evidence of contempt of court. That would depend on whether there were circumstances over and above the breach which showed contempt of the court process.

Mr Schollum's lawyer, Paul Mabey, QC, said he had referred the matter to the Solicitor-General as well as the police because the action of the Wellington group was a "flagrant breach" of the suppression order.

Wellington police said they were waiting for documents from the High Court at Auckland to help assess whether a breach had been committed.

Detective Senior Sergeant Simon Perry said he hoped to have them within the next few days. "Once we've received and studied the documents we'll have a better idea of what orders may have been breached and what action will follow."

The offence of breaching suppression orders carried a maximum fine of $1000 but not a jail term. "People can't be arrested for this but can be summonsed to appear before the court."

Mr Perry said the issue surrounding contempt of court was a separate one determined by the judiciary in consultation with the Solicitor-General.

A spokeswoman for the Solicitor-General yesterday confirmed he, too, was looking into the issues.

Nicholas case suppression orders breached in flyers

2006-04-04T04:30:00.000-07:00

Nicholas case suppression orders breached in flyers
04.04.06
By Mike Houlahan

Information withheld from the jury considering the Louise Nicholas rape claim case and covered by court suppression orders has been handed to Wellington commuters and shoppers in a flyer distributed by a vigilante group.

Police are now investigating the flyer's distribution. On Friday, assistant police commissioner Clint Rickards and former police officers Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton were found not guilty of a range of historical sexual charges against Mrs Nicholas, after a high-profile trial in the High Court at Auckland.

Now a Wellington group is intent on retrying the case in the court of public opinion.

The group staged a protest at the Police College open day on Saturday, and yesterday stepped up their campaign by distributing hundreds of flyers to workers passing through Wellington Railway Station, and to shoppers in the busy Cuba Mall shopping area.

Group spokeswoman Emma Wills said they were well aware they were breaching suppression orders by distributing the flyer, headed "We Believe Louise Nicholas". "We are outraged at the way the trial went and obviously the fact that Louise Nicholas was punished for the fact that the jury didn't have access to all the information," Ms Wills said. "Some of us had access to this information earlier and we didn't hand it out during the Louise Nicholas trial because we believed there was still a possibility of the right verdict being reached, but we have seen exactly how it has worked for Louise Nicholas and we believe the information has to be out there now."

Lawyers for Mr Shipton and Mr Schollum both reacted angrily yesterday when told about the flyers. "I take it seriously and have referred it to the Solicitor-General and New Zealand police for further action," Schollum's lawyer Paul Mabey QC said.

Mr Shipton's lawyer, Bill Nabney said the breach of suppression orders was deliberate and serious. "The court makes suppression orders for good and valid reasons. They're not made lightly, and obviously this is of great concern. "

The police are the people who should investigate the matter and we will await the outcome of their inquiries and what they decide to do. We'll take it from there, once the police have ... made a decision."

Wellington police district commander, Superintendent Rob Pope, confirmed police were investigating the distribution of the flyer.

Nicholas rape case leaflet referred to police

2006-04-03T04:36:00.000-07:00

NZPA
Nicholas rape case leaflet referred to police
03.04.06
6.50pm

A leaflet about the Louise Nicholas rape trial, circulated in Wellington today, has been referred to the Solicitor-General and the police.

The leaflet was apparently handed out by four women at Wellington railway station and referred matters suppressed at the trial at which one serving and two former police officers were found not guilty of a variety of sexual offences against Mrs Nicholas in Rotorua 20 years ago.

The accused men were Assistant Commissioner Clint Rickards and former officers Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton who faced a three week jury trial in the High Court at Auckland.

Mr Schollum's lawyer, Paul Mabey, QC, said he had referred the leaflet to Solicitor-General Terence Arnold, QC, and the police. "It's in their hands," he said. "All I can do is bring it to their attention, which I have and they're the enforcement authorities.

It's up to them what they do." A spokeswoman for the Crown Law Office said the matter was one for the police. "It is a breach of a suppression order, which is a criminal offence," she said. She also suggested that Mr Mabey could go back to the court that imposed the suppression order. "It's a serious breach," she said.

The spokeswoman said she had heard the women had given out about 1600 leaflets so far.

No-one was available for comment from Wellington police.

First police accused speaks out

2006-04-02T17:46:00.000-07:00

Sunday Star Times
April 2 2006
First police accused speaks out
by Rachel Grunwell

The first policeman accused and acquitted of sex crimes against Louise Nicholas has broken his silence, saying her lies have ruined his life.

The man, who has permanent name suppression, is one of seven officers Nicholas has accused of sexual assault. None has been convicted.

Last week, the other three officers to have been charged over her allegations - Clint Rickards, Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton -were acquitted of rape charges.

The first policeman faced three trials during 1993-94, two of which were aborted because of inadmissible police evidence. The third jury acquitted him, and it was during these trials that Nicholas's other allegations came to light.

Nicholas claimed he had sex with her when she was 13, while she boarded with him and his family. He denied ever having sex with her and was later paid $21,300 compensation for his ordeal.

The man last week told the Sunday Star-Times Nicholas lived in a "fantasy world". He said he was obsessed about what happened to him, and that had contributed to the collapse of his marriage.

His wife last week said: "Her lies have ruined a lot of lives."
The man, now a North Island farmer, is astounded he was never interviewed by police investigating her allegations against Rickards, Schollum and Shipton. "I'd have liked to have been interviewed, I could have contributed."

The Operation Austin police team spent thousands of hours interviewing people who knew Nicholas and the three men, and vowed the inquiries would be thorough. But police never asked the man first accused by Nicholas for his version of events.

Supporters of the latest officers acquitted have also raised concerns about the police inquiry. Shipton's brothers Craig and Greg Shipton were concerned detectives had not interviewed key people, and said the police inquiry had been selective with its evidence.

The first accused man says the only contact he has had from police was at Christmas, when a Rotorua detective rang him to say he could be charged with perjury over his historic case, and asked if he would be interviewed. He told the detective to "piss off" and has not heard from police since.

He was still haunted by a huge "injustice" and a room in his house is filled with neatly-stacked piles of files, photos and evidence from his trial.

His marriage collapsed more than a year ago - just after details of the latest Nicholas allegations surfaced. It brought back ugly memories for the couple.

The man's wife said she had been glued to TV coverage of the latest trial and felt for the wives of the three accused.

She said watching last week's case brought back horrible memories, and she felt like she had gone through her husband's case all over again.

She said she had never doubted her husband's innocence.

The former policeman plans to start a new life overseas

Rickards' accuser has no regrets

2006-04-02T04:41:00.000-07:00

Herald on Sunday
Rickards' accuser has no regrets
02.04.06
By Staff Reporters

The woman who accused one of the country's top police officers of rape has revealed she has no regrets about pursuing the case.

Her comment came the day after one of the country's most senior policemen walked free from the High Court in Auckland after a three-week rape trial.

Assistant police commissioner Clint Rickards and former policemen Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum were acquitted on all 20 sex charges against them on Friday afternoon.

Mrs Nicholas, through a family friend, said she had no regrets about the case. She had claimed Rickards, Shipton and Schollum had raped her and sexually abused her, once with a police baton, while she was an 18-year-old in Rotorua in 1985 and 1986.

A family spokesman said Mrs Nicholas was "feeling as anyone would in her situation". "She and the Nicholas family just want to thank family and friends for their support and the hundreds and hundreds of ordinary New Zealanders who sent cards and letters of support."

There was anger from the families of the men involved in the trial. As he was leaving the court, Mr Rickards said he had strong concerns over the way the police investigation was carried out.

Mr Shipton's brother Craig said yesterday the family planned to lodge a complaint with the Police Complaints Authority. He said the trial was an attempt to prevent Mr Rickards from becoming the first Maori Police Commissioner. "Certain people did not want to see that happen. We don't know exactly who but we do know some politicians waded into that."

Prime Minister Helen Clark was among those who made comments on the case. "The question which is on everyone's mind is, what were the prevailing standards of police behaviour where group sex with relatively young women was not considered a matter of concern to the employer?" she asked.

Ms Clark yesterday dismissed accusations of interference. "The Government has no influence on prosecutions."

Mr Schollum's wife Caron said she was delighted. Family and friends had celebrated after the verdict. Rickards, 45, has been suspended from the police on full pay since the inquiry began but discussions about his future are expected to take time.

Lawyer Dr Rob Moodie said the suspension of Mr Rickards would not attract compensation as it did for senior police officer Alec Waugh.

After a successful personal grievance claim in 2004, Superintendant Waugh was reinstated and awarded $1 million for five years out of the police. "The opportunity for that would be virtually zero," Mr Moodie told the Herald On Sunday. He said unless Mr Rickards could show the police hierarchy had mishandled his case or that prosecutors had fabricated information, he didn't have a case to argue against his employers or the court.

Deputy Commissioner Lyn Provost said on Friday that talks would begin with Assistant Commissioner Rickards over employment matters but the process could not be rushed.

2006-04-01T05:09:00.000-08:00

NZ Herald
Tears of relief follow police trial verdict
01.04.06
By Eugene Bingham, Nicola Boyes, Phil Taylor, Elizabeth Binning and Angela Gregory

Long pent-up emotions found voice in gasps and guttural sobs among a packed public gallery yesterday as the jury forewoman in the Louise Nicholas case uttered the words "not guilty" for the 20th and last time.

It was just gone afternoon tea time, two days and two hours since the seven women and five men on the jury were asked to begin their deliberations. "Justice," yelled one woman among the throng in courtroom 12 in the High Court at Auckland. "At last," a man added. "Love you, Brad," Sharon Shipton called to her husband, Brad, in the dock 5m away, where stood Bob Schollum - like Mr Shipton a former policeman - and one of the highest-ranking officers in the land, Assistant Commissioner Clint Rickards.

Mrs Nicholas, accompanied by her husband, Ross, seated towards the rear of the court, left quietly as the final verdict was read. Visibly upset, she walked from the historic stone and brick courthouse in Parliament St, Central Auckland, soon after, her husband at her side. Detective Superintendent Nick Perry, head of the police team set up to investigate her allegations, said Mrs Nicholas was obviously disappointed but had no comment.

Extensive suppression orders remain in place. It was a day for the accused and their supporters to have their say, the end of a chapter of a story that began 20 years ago.

Mr Shipton's family expressed disgust that so much taxpayers' money had been spent on the inquiry and alleged that politics had played a part. For the two and half weeks leading up to yesterday's decision, courtroom 12 had been taken back to a time of beat-up Vauxhall Vivas, old Triumphs, of drinking in Rotorua's Cobb and Co, when police officers finishing a night shift at 5am on a Sunday went for drinking sessions known as "Sunday Schools".

Out of those times had come allegations of rape and indecent assault. Among them, Mr Rickards, Mr Shipton and Mr Schollum had faced 20 charges, including allegations that they had violated Mrs Nicholas with a police baton.

After hearing from 25 witnesses and addresses from prosecution and defence counsel, the jury had retired at 1pm on Wednesday and was now back with its verdicts. Lawyers, journalists, friends, family, police officers, former police officers, law students and about 60 members of the public gathered to hear the outcome.

In the front row sat Caron Schollum, expressionless, gripping a friend's hand. Beside her Sharon Shipton closed tired eyes and mouthed words to herself.

Mr Rickard's partner, Tania Eden, smiled, a Maori carving around her neck as it had been for the past 13 days, and said "be strong"as she held tight to a friend's hand. Their partners walked into the dock. Behind them, Mrs Nicholas, the woman who brought them all here, sat steely faced, flanked by her husband and detectives.

Before the jury entered the room, Justice Tony Randerson called for the public to show consideration, that "whatever the outcome, the verdicts be received in complete silence and that you save your reactions for outside the courtroom". As the not guilty verdicts were read one by one, tears began to flow. Mrs Schollum was surrounded by people holding her shoulders, Ms Eden nodded her head, grinning wider and wider.

In the dock, Mr Rickards stood emotionless, even as the wave of jury decisions rolled in.

Mr Schollum was first to show emotion, shaking his head and bowing forward as the forewoman said "not guilty" to the charge of indecent assault with a baton. He squeezed his eyes but was unable to stem the tears.

Mr Shipton rubbed his friend's back, then he too started weeping. Head bowed, he pinched the bridge of his nose with thumb and forefinger. With all the verdicts read, Mr Rickards finally buckled. His eyes watered, his shoulders slumped, the first visible signs of relief.

In the gallery supporters of the men were hugged. In the direction of the prosecution a supporter snapped, "You're a piece of shit."

As Mrs Nicholas left the room, the emotions were too much for the three women who had sat and listened to the sordid stories of their partners' sexual past, evidence of where they had sex, how they had sex and of who had watched.

Justice Randerson thanked the jurors, saying their task had been "unpleasant and unsavoury".

The trial itself had been quite simple, he said. It was the events "swirling around in the outside world" that had caused the problems.

The judge revealed that there had been a risk of the trial being aborted and that he had had to take drastic action.

Two members of the public had been held in contempt of court: A woman was jailed for three days for talking to a member of the jury, and a man who had breached a court order was banned from returning to court during the trial.

Within five minutes of the verdicts being read, the public gallery was empty. Mrs Nicholas had gone, with the portion of the gallery who were there in support of her. While the judge and lawyers remained inside sorting out suppression orders, family and supporters of the cleared trio gathered in a circle outside for karakia. Among them was former MP Willie Jackson, who called himself part of the support team.

Mr Shipton's brother Craig thanked the group of about 30 and said the verdicts restored his faith in God. "It is something to lose faith in the system, and an apology is warranted. These are good men. The world needs more of these men, and we should all be proud of them. "Our family can sleep tonight and know maybe, maybe, this justice system works. However, I hate to think that any persecution like this might happen to someone else."

He and another brother, Greg Shipton, described the prosecution of the men as political. Even the Prime Minister had commented, which they said was inappropriate. Craig Shipton: "It's purely political and quite frankly we are going to be asking some serious questions about the use of taxpayers' money to put good people through this. We have a lot of rubbish going on at the moment in this country. This is politically driven, and it's time it stopped." Greg Shipton: "Had Clint Rickards been a plumber in Rotorua, it would have been investigated once and that would be it. This is about stopping the first Maori commissioner of police." He criticised the "corrupt" police and said they were "still out there soliciting complaints".

Mr Shipton's sister, Tracey Shipton, told the Weekend Herald the family had never thought the men would be acquitted.

As he was about to leave the courtroom, Mr Rickards hugged his lawyer, Queen's Counsel John Haigh, then left hand-in-hand with Ms Eden to an unlit room off the foyer.

Two women, arms folded, defiantly blocked the doorway and window. One, a Maori warden, was soon replaced by a man wearing a black T-shirt, "Awesome Aotearoa Warriors" emblazoned across his burly chest.

Inside the room, a blinking Mr Rickards greeted well-wishers with hugs and backslaps. Mobbed by reporters as he left the court, Mr Rickards vigorously rubbed Ms Eden's shoulder as he told the media how "terribly relieved" he was.

In January 2004, before the allegations against him became public, Mr Rickards was commander of the Auckland police district.

His career had been a stellar one.

He joined the police in January 1979, signing up to cadet wing 23 three days after his 18th birthday, and was first stationed in his hometown of Rotorua. The remarkable career of police officer CR7055 was under way.

Not long into the job, he was shoulder-tapped and asked to join the undercover programme. A well-built man trained in the martial art of judo (he represented NZ at the 1986 Commonwealth Games, where he came fourth in his division), he seemed the perfect candidate.

Long-term operations in Kawerau, Invercargill and Christchurch followed, with short-term stints in Wellington and Auckland too. He delved into drug rings and burglary rackets. Proving he had brains as well as brawn, he gained a bachelor of business studies degree from Massey University and a masters in public policy from Charles Sturt University, New South Wales. During the past two years he has been studying for a doctorate in business.

By the time he was appointed Waikato district commander in 1999, he was being noticed by then Police Minister George Hawkins for his innovative crime prevention and community programmes, some of which were run in conjunction with Ms Eden, at that time a fellow officer.

The pair became a couple about 1993 and have a daughter, one of five of Mr Rickards' children. He also won plaudits for his work in the Maori community, taking pride in his Ngati Apakura and Ngati Hikairo tribal links and seeking to reduce Maori offending rates.

The Nicholas allegations became public in January 2004, but unlike previous inquiries that were conducted away from the gaze of public attention, these accusations against Mr Rickards, Mr Schollum and Mr Shipton were very much in the open.

A high-powered inquiry team, headed by Mr Perry, began one of the most important investigations conducted by the New Zealand police, and Mr Rickards was stood down from duty.

The inquiry took 14 months before the trio were charged. It was another 12 months before they stood trial. After all those months, the length of time that the jury took to make its decision had been almost unbearable, family members said. "We were praying," said Tracey Shipton.

Because of the time it took for the jury to come back she said the families had started to think the worst. "There were so many charges we weren't sure when the end [of the jury's not guilty verdicts] was coming. "We're all sad because it should never have come to this." She said they had stuck it out on the second floor of the High Court - a divide between them and a scrum of waiting media for three long days.

She recalled sitting on the floor massaging her mother Lorraine's feet at 8.30 on Thursday night. "It has affected her health. It has affected her faith in society," she said as she waited for Mr Shipton's wife, who was spending private time with her husband. They hugged and cried and as she walked out of courtroom 12 for the last time, Sharon Shipton nodded with dark-ringed eyes and said, "He's very happy with the result. "We never ever doubted. We never ever doubted for one moment these men were innocent. We know them."

Mr Rickards, the only one of the trio to have taken the stand, had told the jury he admitted having two consensual sexual encounters with Mrs Nicholas. He said he made no excuse for what was a jovial, happy time but he was not proud. "I had a partner and I had two children; that speaks for itself," he told the court.

Mrs Nicholas' evidence was of rape. She spoke of a loss of control, wanting to hide, and of the moment she alleged a smirking Mr Shipton loomed over her in 1986, police baton in one hand as the other two officers looked on. She had been a victim of conditioning, of an imbalance of power, and had lost her ability to resist.

Mr Rickards said her allegations were a lie. What they said

* Clint Rickards It was the right result as far as today, and I certainly would like to make my heartfelt gratitude to my legal team, Mr Haigh. They have done a splendid job, and justice prevailed today. It has been torture, torture for the last 2 years. This has been the worst nightmare you could ever imagine. Look, it's been very traumatic for my wife [Tania Eden] and my whanau as well.

One thing that's pulled me through has been my whanau. You have seen them here today, my wife, Tania, my son and my brother have been with me all the way and my extended whanau. If you didn't have that support it would be even more traumatic.

Twenty-four hours, seven days a week. [The period the jury deliberated had been] torture, yeah it's been mayhem. Asked if Mr Rickards expected to take his job back, his lawyer, John Haigh, QC, said it was a matter to be resolved later. "There are a lot of negotiations and so forth and discussions with the police department and we'll pursue that at a later point." Asked his view of Louise Nicholas right now, Mr Haigh said: "It's probably not appropriate to go into that."

* The police Deputy Commissioner Lyn Provost says police will start talks with Clint Rickards' lawyer about employment matters. "There are many factors involved both from the point of view of the employee and the employer and I am not going to speculate or prejudice those matters by public commentary," said Ms Provost. She said the Operation Austin team which had undertaken the investigation into Mr Rickards, Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum had done so according to the highest standards of professionalism in the police. "They have discharged their duty in exemplary fashion," she said.

* Shipton family Helen Clark, who passed over Clint Rickards for the job of deputy police commissioner six years ago after hearing he had been investigated for sexual misconduct, was accused yesterday of persecution. "As a family we will be asking serious questions - this is persecution from the Prime Minister down," said Craig Shipton, brother of Brad Shipton.

Craig Shipton accused Helen Clark of interfering in the case by commenting publicly on it. This was denied last night by a spokeswoman for Helen Clark, who said neither the Prime Minister nor any Government minister had ever commented on the court case.

The charges

* Clinton John Tukotahi Rickards
2 charges of rape (one representative)
1 representative charge of sexual violation by rape
4 charges of indecent assault (one representative)
1 representative charge of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection
Verdict: not guilty on all charges

* Robert Francis Schollum
1 charge of rape
4 charges of indecent assault
Verdict: not guilty on all charges

* Bradley Keith Shipton
2 charges of rape (one representative)
1 representative charge of sexual violation by rape
3 charges of indecent assault (one representative)
1 representative charge of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection
Verdict: not guilty on all charges

Rickards' partner speaks of 'rough time'

2006-04-01T04:55:00.000-08:00

NEWSTALK ZB
Rickards' partner speaks of 'rough time'
01.04.06 1.00pm

The partner of Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards says her family just want to get on with their lives.

Clint Rickards, along with former policemen Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum, has been acquitted on 20 charges of raping Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas. Clint Rickards' partner Tania Eden says it's been a rough time for herself and her five children.

Ms Eden says she and Mr Rickards just want to get back to watching their kids play rugby and netball, and have an ordinary family life.

Police National Headquarters says a decision about Mr Rickards' employment with the police is yet to be made. Meanwhile, a brother of one of the three policemen acquitted of raping Louise Nicholas 20 years ago is furious the case went as far as it did.

Brad Shipton's brother, Greg Shipton, says the trial was merely an attempt to prevent Clint Rickards becoming the first Maori Police Commissioner.

He says if Mr Rickards was a plumber from Rotorua the case never would have got this far. He says the jury's 27 hour deliberation paled in comparison to the real wait the families of the accused have faced.

Mr Shipton says they have been been hauled over the coals and slated for the last ten years. He says it was the hardest thing his family has ever had to do.

Louise Nicholas thanks supporters

2006-04-01T04:49:00.000-08:00

NZPA
Louise Nicholas thanks supporters
01.04.06 1.00pm

Louise Nicholas, the woman who took one of the country's top policemen to court on rape and sex charges, has been getting support from throughout the country.

Mrs Nicholas told NZPA through a family spokesman today she was "feeling as anyone would in her situation" the day after a jury of seven woman and five men dismissed her allegations of rape and sexual abuse against assistant police commissioner Clint Rickards and former policemen, Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum.

The three men were acquitted on all 20 charges after a three-week hearing in the High Court at Auckland yesterday.

Mrs Nicholas claimed they had raped her and sexually abused her, once with a police baton, while she was an 18-year-old in Rotorua in 1985 and 1986.

She told the court she could not say no to the men because they were policemen who intimidated her and she was scared of them. In their own defence the three men said she lied.

They said the incident with the baton never happened and although they had had group sex with her, it was consensual and not against her will.

Mrs Nicholas walked smartly from the court in Auckland yesterday, one hand holding her husband Ross's hand, the other clenched in a fist. She refused to answer questions.

Today a family spokesman issued a brief statement to NZPA. "She and the Nicholas family just want to thank family and friends for their support and the hundreds and hundreds of ordinary New Zealanders who sent cards and letters of support," the family spokesman said.

Outside the court Rickards told of the "torture" of the last 30 months since the inquiry began but he would not talk about his feelings for Mrs Nicholas.

When asked by NZPA how he felt about her, his lawyer John Haigh, QC, intervened and said it was not appropriate.

Rickards, 45, has been suspended from the police on full pay since the inquiry began but discussions about his future were expected to take some time.

Jury in third day of police rape case deliberations

2006-03-31T05:25:00.000-08:00

NZ Herald
Jury in third day of police rape case deliberations
31.03.06
By Nicola Boyes

Jurors were today starting a third day of deliberations in the rape case against Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards and former police colleagues Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton.

The jury considering Louise Nicholas' rape allegations had been deliberating for almost 21 hours in the High Court at Auckland when it adjourned last night about 8.45pm.

Earlier yesterday the jurors asked if they could have access to Justice Tony Randerson's summing-up notes.

While the family and friends of the three accused have kept a vigil outside court room 12, Mrs Nicholas has not been seen.

Supporters of the defendants gathered again last night. Mrs Nicholas alleges that between September 1985 and December 1986 Shipton and Rickards visited her Rotorua flat between six and 12 times uninvited for sex she did not consent to.

She also alleges that in January 1986 Schollum picked her up while she was walking home from her job at the BNZ Bank and took her to a police house where the trio took turns raping her before indecently assaulting her with a police baton.

Jury clears men in police rape trial

2006-03-31T05:23:00.000-08:00

HERALD STAFF
Jury clears men in police rape trial
31.03.06 3.25pm
UPDATE

The three men accused of the rape and sexual assault of Louise Nicholas have been found not guilty by a jury at the High Court in Auckland this afternooon.

Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards and former police colleagues Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton had denied a total of 20 charges.

There were emotional scenes in the courtroom as they gave their verdict at around 3pm.

Family and supporters of the three men cried and hugged each other. Schollum and Shipton also cried, Newstalk ZB reported, while Rickards showed little emotion.

The jury had spent more than two days considering its verdict.

Mrs Nicholas had alleged that between September 1985 and December 1986, Shipton and Rickards visited her Rotorua flat between six and 12 times uninvited for sex she did not consent to.

She had also alleged that in January 1986 Schollum picked her up while she was walking home from her job at the BNZ Bank and took her to a police house where the trio took turns raping her before indecently assaulting her with a police baton.

Police rape jury asks for judge's summing up

2006-03-30T05:28:00.000-08:00

NZ Herald
Police rape jury asks for judge's summing up
30.03.06 12.35pm
UPDATE
By Nicola Boyes

The jury in the police rape case has this morning asked the judge for a transcript of his summing up following almost a day of deliberation.

Justice Tony Randerson agreed to them seeing his legal direction but not the entire transcript.

The jury was continuing a second day of deliberations into the fate of former Assistant Commissioner Clint Rickards and two other former police officers.

The seven women and five men retired at 1pm yesterday at the High Court in Auckland to consider the case against Rickards, and former officers Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton.

They adjourned for the night at 10pm after asking several questions of Justice Randerson.

The judge had earlier told them their task was not easy, as there were effectively three trials running as one.

The three accused face 20 charges of rape, indecent assault and sexual violation against Louise Nicholas said to have occurred between 1985 and 1986 in Rotorua.

Lawyers for the three men have said the sex was consensual and that an alleged sexual attack with a police baton never took place.

After 2 hours the jury emerged to ask if they could have a whiteboard and take a break.

They also asked if police officers kept their own uniforms.

Justice Randerson referred them to evidence given by former sergeant Raymond Sutton, who told the court CIB officers were entitled to keep police uniforms and were encouraged to do so.

Mrs Nicholas has alleged Rickards and Shipton visited her at her flat for sex without her consent - sometimes wearing uniform and sometimes in plain clothes.

But the men's lawyers said during the trial that the men were plain-clothes detectives in the CIB at the time of the alleged offences and would not have been wearing uniform, as Mrs Nicholas had claimed. The second question asked by the jury cannot be revealed because it would breach one of a number of suppression orders in place at the trial.

In a three-hour summing up yesterday, Justice Randerson said the jury had to decide if Mrs Nicholas was a credible and reliable witness or whether she genuinely believed she was truthful but might have been mistaken.

Justice Randerson said the men were only to be judged on evidence given in court and were entitled to any doubt in the jurors' minds. "If you have a reasonable doubt that leaves you feeling unsure then you must acquit."

The fact that the allegations were first made in 1993 could have been for any number of reasons, he said. The evidence of a flatmate who said she had seen Mrs Nicholas having sex with the officers in one location, if found to be credible, could have a bearing on Mrs Nicholas' credibility in her evidence about alleged offences in another location.

The jurors were told it was not their job to judge the morality of what the men had done. "Whatever view you may have about the morality of their behaviour must be put to one side. This court is not concerned with the morality of their behaviour." It would be wrong for the jury to take into account any material they may have seen or heard other than what had been presented in court.

Jury considering police rape charges

2006-03-29T14:05:00.000-08:00

NZPA
Jury considering police rape charges
29.03.06 2.05pm
UPDATE

A jury of seven women and five men retired at 1.25pm today to decide if a high-ranking policeman and two former policemen are rapists.

Assistant police commissioner Clint Rickards, and former police officers Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum are being tried in the High Court at Auckland on 20 historic rape and sexual abuse charges against Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas.

She told the trial all three men raped her and indecently assaulted her in 1985 and 1986 when she was an 18-year-old in Rotorua.

They deny the charges.

Summing up this morning Justice Tony Randerson told the jury the three men were entitled to benefit from any element of doubt in the case with an acquittal.

He told the jurors they faced a daunting task but were not to be influenced by moral issues after the three men said in court they had had group sex with Mrs Nicholas but that it was consensual.

Lawyers for Rickards, suspended from the police on full pay, Shipton and Schollum, said that Mrs Nicholas made up the rape allegations.

They said she liked sex with policemen.

Mrs Nicholas said in evidence she had lost control and could not say "no" to the three men who used their influence as police officers to intimidate her. She said she was very scared of them.

Too many flaws in Nicholas case, say defence lawyers

2006-03-29T05:40:00.000-08:00

NZ Herald
Too many flaws in Nicholas case, say defence lawyers
29.03.06
By Nicola Boyes

Holes in the Crown case against Assistant Commissioner Clint Rickards and two former police colleagues are too great for any jury to convict the men, the High Court at Auckland was told yesterday.

Lawyers for Rickards, 45, Brad Shipton, 47, and Bob Schollum, 53, gave their closing addresses to the jury of seven women and five men, saying the complainant, Louise Nicholas, had lied and fabricated events and the Crown case did not come within a "bull's roar" of what was required.

The jurors will retire today to consider their verdicts. Rickards' lawyer, John Haigh, QC, told the jury the case the Crown had presented was not enough to convict anyone. Mrs Nicholas was courting attention for a past of which she was ashamed, he said. "If these allegations are indeed true then Mrs Nicholas must be a hauntingly tragic figure."

Between them the three men face 20 charges of rape, indecent assault and sexual violation of Mrs Nicholas. She alleges Shipton and Rickards visited her Rotorua flat uninvited for sex she did not consent to between September 1985 and January 1986.

She alleges all three men took turns at raping her and then indecently assaulted her with a police baton at a police house in January 1986.

Mr Haigh said Mrs Nicholas had courted publicity in the case, waiving the right to name suppression given to all complainants in sex cases. "She chose to have her name here, to have her name splattered all over the media."

Flaws in the Crown case emerged if the jury asked why she allowed the abuse to continue at her flat after the incident at the police house in Rutland St, Mr Haigh said.

"Rutland St is so gross that if it is true it would be an abomination." He said all she offered was, "No, guys, I don't want this." "She doesn't speak out, she doesn't shout, she doesn't push, she doesn't run. Is that common sense? Can you write that off as saying poor Mrs Nicholas had lost control?"

Mr Haigh asked why she had not complained to anyone at the time, when she had already made a previous complaint against a police officer to her mother, who tried to do something about it. "It was the simplest thing in the world," he said. "What loss of control prevents you from saying, 'Mum, this happened to me'?"

Mr Haigh said Rutland St was a fabrication and questioned why Mrs Nicholas continued wearing the dress she said she had on that day years after the incident. "Would you not think forever this dress would be contaminated? It was a memento, if you like, of the most ghastly moment of her life."

Evidence that Rickards was never in uniform, as Mrs Nicholas had suggested, because he was a plain-clothes detective at the time could not be ignored, he said.

Evidence given by her former flatmate who said she had sex with Shipton and Schollum and had seen Mrs Nicholas having sex with them did not come "within a bull's roar" of the Crown case. "Doesn't that knock Mrs Nicholas out of the ring because she says [her flatmate] was never there. If it wasn't so tragically serious you could describe it as laughable." Rickards' achievements in the police were to be admired and his work was impeccable, he said. Rickards conceded he had consensual sex with Mrs Nicholas twice and while that might have been morally reprehensible, it was not criminal. "She consented and he reasonably believed she was consenting."

Bill Nabney, for Shipton, said his case was on two fronts: Shipton admitted having consensual sex with Mrs Nicholas and Rutland St simply did not occur. He said the trial was not about a married man having extra-marital sex with a young woman. "It's a bunch of people having fun." The evidence of Mrs Nicholas' flatmate showed that, he said.

Paul Mabey, QC, for Schollum, said the evidence in the case was just not good enough. Mrs Nicholas had created a fantasy and told lies.

Evidence was presented which proved that Schollum was not driving a Triumph at the time, as Mrs Nicholas claimed when she said she had been picked up by him and taken to Rutland St.

Her claims that she made a solemn promise to her brother Peter that she would be civil to Schollum at his wedding in February 1993 were untrue.

In his evidence he said he knew nothing of her allegations. Instead, Mr Mabey said, she had flashed her leg to Schollum during wedding photos.

The court was not for judging morality, he said.

He asked the jurors to write "Are you sure?" on a white board before they started deliberating.

Justice Tony Randerson will sum up the case for the jury this morning.

Jury returns to ask judge question in police rape case

2006-03-29T05:33:00.000-08:00

NZPA
Jury returns to ask judge question in police rape case
29.03.06 6.25pm

Two hours into deliberations the jury in the historic police rape case, came out of the jury room to ask whether police officers owned their own uniforms.

The jury of seven women and five men retired at 1pm today to decide verdicts on Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards, 45, and former policemen Brad Shipton, 47, and Bob Schollum, 53.

The men face twenty charges of rape, indecent assault and sexual violation against Louise Nicholas.

Judge Tony Randerson answered the jurors by directing them to sections of the 300 page transcript of evidence from the three week trial.

Mrs Nicholas alleges Rickards and Shipton visited her at her Corlett Street flat in Rotorua, between six to 12 times in the mid 1980s for sexual intercourse and oral sex without her consent.

She had testified in her evidence they sometimes wore their police uniforms and other times were dressed in suits.

Rickards and Shipton told the court they had consensual sex with Mrs Nicholas but they were CIB officers and were never dressed in police uniform.

Rickards gave evidence in his own defence last week and said he never wore police uniform during the time he was alleged to have raped Mrs Nicholas.

Rickards and Shipton were both uniformed police in the early 1980s.

Judge Randerson read out evidence to the jurors from retired Rotorua Sergeant Ray Sutton who said CIB officers were still expected to have a police uniform but not all CIB officers did.

Rickards defence lawyer John Haigh QC said yesterday Mrs Nicholas was lying when she said she saw Rickards in police uniform and her evidence had gaps "a mile wide".

Earlier in the day Judge Randerson spent three hours summing up the trial, he told the jury they had a difficult task ahead and reminded them there were effectively three trials in one.

He said they had to decide if Mrs Nicholas was a credible and reliable witness or whether she genuinely believed she was truthful but may have been mistaken.

Defence says Nicholas' story full of holes

2006-03-28T13:00:00.000-08:00

NZPA
Defence says Nicholas' story full of holes
28.03.06 1.00pm

The holes in the evidence of Louise Nicholas are too wide and it would be impossible to convict Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards of raping and indecently assaulting her, a jury was told today.

John Haigh, QC, defence lawyer for Rickards, said Mrs Nicholas was an attention-seeker who wanted someone to blame for a past she was ashamed of.

Rickards and two former policemen, Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum, face 20 historic charges of rape, indecent assault and sexual violation brought against them by Mrs Nicholas.

All three denied the charges but have previously said they had consensual sex with her in Rotorua in the mid-1980s.

Mr Haigh asked the jury in the High Court at Auckland not to reject a critical piece of evidence that he said proved Mrs Nicholas was lying.

She alleged Rickards and Shipton visited her flat uninvited for sex between six and 12 times from September 1985 to December 1986. She said in her evidence at the beginning of the three-week trial the two accused came to her Corlett Street flat during the day when her two flatmates were not home.

Mr Haigh referred to contradictory evidence given by Mrs Nicholas's flatmate who said it was Shipton and Schollum who came around for sex and Mrs Nicholas "certainly wasn't saying no".

Mrs Nicholas said during cross-examination that her flatmate's recollection was mistaken.

Mr Haigh said if there was ever a case which needed the highest standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt, this was it.

Lawyers for the other two men were also expected to give their closing submissions today before the jury of seven women and five men.

Justice Tony Randerson was expected to sum up tomorrow before sending the jury out to consider its verdicts.

Nicholas' evidence 'chilling'

2006-03-28T05:49:00.000-08:00

NZ Herald
Nicholas' evidence 'chilling'
28.03.06
By Nicola Boyes

The jury in the Louise Nicholas rape case has been urged by the Crown to remember the anguish and pain in the voice of Mrs Nicholas when she gave evidence against the three defendants last week.

Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards, 45, and former police officers Brad Shipton, 47, and Bob Schollum, 53, face 20 charges among them including the alleged rape, indecent assault and sexual violation of Louise Nicholas between 1985 and 1986.

In his closing statement to the High Court jury, Crown prosecutor Brent Stanaway said that while the accused men said Mrs Nicholas was a liar and a serial false accuser of police officers, the Crown argued that at the time of the alleged incidents, she was an unfortunate teenager ill-equipped to deal with the predatory advances of the three men.

The Crown case hinged on Mrs Nicholas' testimony, which he described as "compelling and at times chilling".

"She was not an eloquent, cultured or educated person. "She has a nuggety and down-to- earth personality and turn of phrase. "That was no performance. That was a woman, in my submission, who had waited 20 years to face these three men in court and tell a jury what they had done to her."

He said the accused had traded on an "imbalance of power" and Mrs Nicholas had found it too hard to make a complaint. "Louise Nicholas was effectively playdough in the accused's hands."

Defence suggestions that she was somehow revisiting a past she was embarrassed by were "untenable", he said, questioning why Mrs Nicholas would put herself through a trial and maintain her stance for 20 years. "It just doesn't wash."

He said she might be mistaken in aspects, but the core of her recollections was consistent and had been since the allegations arose.

Defence suggestions that Mrs Nicholas had enjoyed media attention over the past two and half years were also denied.

Mr Stanaway told the jurors they should be unimpressed with Rickards' "extraordinary reluctance and dogmatic performance" when he gave evidence in his defence last week.

Mr Stanaway said Rickards' "mantras or chants" denying the allegations against him and repeatedly saying "Louise Nicholas is lying" were not the responses of a credible witness.

Picton resident Kerrianne Best, who was matron of honour at the wedding of Mrs Nicholas' brother in February 1993, was called to give evidence for Schollum yesterday before the defence finished its case.

She told his lawyer, Paul Mabey, QC, that she had seen Mrs Nicholas and Schollum laughing at the reception and Mrs Nicholas had pulled up her skirt showing Schollum the lacy top of her stockings.

Lawyers for the three defendants will give their own closing statements to the jury today, and Justice Tony Randerson is expected to sum up the case tomorrow.

Nicholas showed rape accused her stocking, court hears

2006-03-27T05:53:00.000-08:00

NZPA
Nicholas showed rape accused her stocking, court hears
27.03.06 12.15pm

Louise Nicholas publicly showed her stockings to a man accused of raping her seven years after the alleged attacks, a witness has said today.

Mrs Nicholas was laughing when she pulled up her bridesmaid's dress to reveal her lace stockings to the man, the jury in the High Court at Auckland heard.

Picton resident Kerrianne Best was giving evidence in defence of former policeman Bob Schollum, who is accused with Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards and another former policeman, Brad Shipton.

The trio are accused of raping and sexually abusing Mrs Nicholas between September 1985 and January 1986 in Rotorua. They deny the charges.

Miss Best, 38, a friend of Schollum since 1991, said she was the matron of honour at the wedding of Peter Crawford, Mrs Nicholas' brother in 1993.

Schollum, a friend of Mr Crawford's at the time, was the cameraman and driver.

Miss Best said she remembered watching Mrs Nicholas and Schollum laughing together during the wedding party photographs at a park in Hastings.

"Just as we were finishing the photographs, Louise Nicholas and Bob were standing beside the tree," Miss Best told the court.

"We all wore stockings and up the top there was a wide piece of lace elastic. Louise lifted her skirt and showed Bob her lacey bit on her stocking."

Miss Best said she recalled the moment in the park after hearing the allegations Mrs Nicholas had brought against Schollum.

Schollum's defence lawyer, Paul Mabey, QC, told the jury the issue for them was to determine Mrs Nicholas' credibility.

The trial is continuing.

Rickards takes the stand, impervious as a wax model

2006-03-23T05:59:00.000-08:00

NZ Herald
Rickards takes the stand, impervious as a wax model
23.03.06
By Carroll Du Chateau

Yesterday, 20 years after his alleged rapes of Louise Nicholas, and 11 years after the first investigation into them, Assistant Commissioner of Police (suspended) Clinton Rickards finally took the stand in the High Court.

And he denied almost everything.

One of the top policemen in the country, he knows what to do in the witness box.

He sits there, shaven head gleaming, mouth grim, massive jaw thrust out, as impervious and expressionless as a wax model.

His answers are clipped and minimal. The only time the trace of a smile lightens his face is when he is asked to look at a photo of himself, his then-partner and baby daughter.

As Rickards tells it, the two times he and colleague Brad Shipton had sex with 18-year-old Louise Nicholas were happy, jovial occasions.

Rickards can't remember why his friend Brad Shipton picked him up and took him to their colleague Bob Schollum's place in Rutland St one night after dark.

What he can remember is that Nicholas was there, welcomed them in and almost immediately sat on his lap.

"It was a jovial occasion, laughing, giggling, talking away. It was a very happy occasion." "Did you ever force yourself on her?" "No, I did not. Louise Nicholas is lying." And later, when asked, "What do you think was in it for Mrs Nicholas?" "I don't know. You'd have to ask Louise Nicholas that."

Although Rickards admits to feeling embarrassed to be here in court explaining how he and Shipton took turns to have sex with Nicholas while the other watched, it does not show on his mask-like face.

Throughout his evidence and cross-examination he does not deviate from the evidence he gave back in 1994 when the case surfaced.

A transcript of his evidence sits there on the computer monitor in the witness box. As he says, "I am happy to answer questions about it but I won't deviate from the evidence I said before." And so, with excruciating slowness, shreds of extra information are prised from Rickards as though from a tightly clamped oyster.

The fact that he watched Shipton having sex with Nicholas after he had finished; the reason he had oral sex with Nicholas on the second occasion he admits to meeting her (after he claimed she called and invited them round) was because she had her period or some infection.

That time Rickards went on to have sex with Nicholas' flatmate - then promptly forgot her name. Throughout the cross-examination Rickards' memory falters.

He cannot remember people's names or why and when he went places.

Several witnesses brought up during the trial are described as being "a nobody to me".

He seems more comfortable when speaking directly to judge Tony Randerson, rather than his lawyer, John Haigh, QC, or Crown Prosecutor Brent Stanaway.

"The [rape] allegations were lies. I had consensual sex with the victim. Now I find myself in a box having to explain myself again."

And later, when asked about Nicholas' allegation that he and Shipton used a baton on her, causing bleeding and injury: "I didn't believe it. Louise Nicholas is lying." "Were you ever told by Schollum and Shipton about the use of a police baton?" "No, I was never."

At every opportunity he stresses that "Louise Nicholas is lying" and that he, himself, tells the truth.

At the time of the alleged rapes and indecent assaults, Rickards was 24 or 25, a detective in Rotorua, with two small children, a mortgage and a partner.

He is 45 now, that partnership is over and his present partner of 13 or 14 years sits at the back of the court in a brave pink jacket.

Alongside are the wives of Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum and a crowd of 70-odd citizens all eager to witness Rickards' day in court.

Although he looks over as they file out, Rickards does not permit himself a smile.

2006-03-22T19:42:00.000-08:00

NZ Herald
Rickards' turn to take the stand
22.03.06
By Nicola Boyes

Clint Rickards, one of the highest ranking officers in the New Zealand police, takes the stand in the High Court at Auckland today to reply to rape allegations that his lawyer says have probably destroyed his career.

The 45-year-old assistant commissioner will enter the witness box in courtroom 12 this morning to deny, for the third time in 20 years, that he ever raped, sexually violated or indecently assaulted Louise Nicholas, now 38.

Mrs Nicholas told the court last week that Rickards and former police officers Brad Shipton, 47, and Bob Schollum, 53, took turns at raping her before using a police baton to sexually violate her at a police house in Rutland St, Rotorua, in January 1986.

She also alleges that between September 1985 and January 1986 Shipton and Rickards, who were police officers working in Rotorua, visited her Corlett St flat uninvited for sex she never consented to.

Prosecutor Brent Stanaway finished the Crown case yesterday before Queen's Counsel John Haigh opened the defence for Rickards, asking the jury of seven women and five men to acquit his client and end the nightmare that had enveloped him and practically destroyed his career.

Rickards, as he has done for the seven days the trial has run, sat still, hands clasped in front of him, his face expressionless.

Mr Haigh said the case for Rickards was not a moral one.

Rickards had a partner and two children when he admits he had two consensual sexual encounters with Mrs Nicholas.

"What he did was unquestionably morally wrong but we all need to step back in time and evaluate the environment as it was 20 years ago."

Mr Haigh said there were five points where the Crown case failed in respect of Rickards.

Evidence from Mrs Nicholas's flatmate at the time described a friendly atmosphere at the flat. She said she was present and also had sex with at least Shipton and Schollum.

Mr Haigh said there was a "freedom of sexuality which may seem astonishing to many of us but nevertheless existed".

He said Mrs Nicholas's claim of being raped and indecently assaulted with the baton was a fabrication.

"Walking into a lion's den in that way, walking in and knowing she was going to be raped."

He said evidence would be called to refute claims by Mrs Nicholas that Rickards was sometimes in uniform.

He also questioned why Mrs Nicholas would keep wearing for years the white muslin dress she says she was wearing on the day of the alleged Rutland St incident. "A garment worn during the most horrific experience of her life, she continues to wear it."

He said Rickards denied the allegations when he was first confronted with them in 1994 and gave evidence in a court case involving another police officer in 1995, when the claims were raised and denied.

"His evidence remains unchanged 12 years after he was first confronted with it and 20 years after the first allegations," Mr Haigh said.

The final witnesses to give evidence in the Crown case yesterday were the three detectives who arrested the three men on the charges.

Detective Sergeant Rodger Gray arrested Schollum, who told him he had already given his statement to police and emphatically denied all the allegations. "I have never been involved in the indecent assault or rape of a woman in my life."

Detective Sergeant Grant Johnstone arrested Shipton, who said he had already made a statement denying the allegations but admitting he had normal consensual sex with Mrs Nicholas.

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen McGregor arrested Rickards, who said he had three things to say: "Frankly, I am disgusted it has taken 14 months to get to this position. I totally and vehemently refute the allegations made by Louise Francis Nicholas. And because of the unfair way I have been treated in the last 14 months, I am not prepared to say anything."

Nicholas lying, top policeman tells court

2006-03-22T11:30:00.000-08:00

NZPA
Nicholas lying, top policeman tells court
22.03.06 11.30am

Alleged rape victim Louise Nicholas was lying when she claimed Clint Rickards wore a police uniform during sexual abuse, the policeman told jurors in the High Court at Auckland today.

Rickards said he never wore uniforms when he was in the Rotorua CIB during the time Mrs Nicholas claimed he raped and sexually abused her.

He began to give evidence in his own defence today as he and two former policemen, Brad Shipton and Robert Schollum stood trial on 20 historic charges of raping Mrs Nicholas and indecently assaulting her in Rotorua more than 20 years ago.

All three have pleaded not guilty to all charges.

On day eight of the trial Rickards, who is suspended from the police on full pay, was asked by his lawyer John Haigh, QC what his reaction was to Mrs Nicholas' claims that he wore a police uniform when he was alleged to have raped and sexually abused her.

"Mrs Nicholas is lying," he said, from his seat in the witness box.

He said he had had sex with Mrs Nicholas twice and both times it was consensual.

The first involved conventional vaginal sex and the second involved oral sex, but at neither time did she say anything to suggest she was unwilling. "If she had I would have stopped."

Mrs Nicholas said that during one incident at a police house in Rutland Street in January 1986, all three men raped her before a baton was used to indecently assault her.

The three men have denied all charges, saying the Rutland Street incident did not happen.

Rickards told the court he had never used a baton sexually on a woman, nor had he been present when a baton had been used.

He said the first time he had sex with Mrs Nicholas he knew it was consensual because she sat on his knee, put her arm around him and began kissing him on the ear.

They went into the bedroom and had sex in the presence of Shipton.

Yesterday as he opened the defence case, Mr Haigh said Mrs Nicholas' recollection of the events was "a series of calculated lies."

Her evidence last week was "made up of delusional recollections that are utterly false". The claims had virtually destroyed Rickards' career.

The trial was expected to last until the end of next week although there would be no hearing on Thursday afternoon or on Friday while Justice Tony Randerson attended a judicial conference.

More evidence suppressed in historic rape-abuse trial

2006-03-21T19:48:00.000-08:00

NZ Herald
More evidence suppressed in historic rape-abuse trial
21.03.06
By Nicola Boyes

Another three secret witnesses are expected to start giving evidence in the High Court at Auckland today at the trial of one of the country's highest ranked police officers and two former policemen.

Suppression orders prevent the media from publishing the names of the people or any of the evidence they are giving for the Crown, at the trial of Assistant Commissioner Clint Rickards, 45, and former police officers, Brad Shipton, 47, and Bob Schollum, 53.

The trio deny 20 charges, including the historic rape, indecent assault and sexual violation of Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas.

Mrs Nicholas told the court when she gave evidence last week, that in January 1986 the three men took turns at raping her in a police house in Rotorua's Rutland St before violating her with a police baton.

She also alleged Shipton and Rickards, uninvited, visited her Rotorua flat in Corlett St between six and 12 times, between September 1985 and January 1986, for sex, to which she said she never consented.

The accused said she consented to all sexual encounters and the incident she said happened in the police house was a complete fabrication.

Yesterday Justice Tony Randerson heard from the 14th witness in the trial.

The name, any identifying particulars and the evidence given by the witness has also been suppressed.

The trial is expected to run into next week.

Secret witness gives evidence at historic sex trial

2006-03-20T13:00:00.000-08:00

NZPA
Secret witness gives evidence at historic sex trial
20.03.06 1.00pm

The evidence of a secret witness has been suppressed at the trial of one of the country's top policemen and two former policemen on rape and sexual abuse charges in the High Court at Auckland today.

Nothing identifying the witness, or any evidence can be reported as the trial enters its sixth day.

Assistant Commissioner Clint Rickards, who is suspended on full pay, and former policemen Brad Shipton and Robert Schollum, are on trial on 20 charges of raping and sexually abusing Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas more than 20 years ago.

The crown's fourteenth witness gave evidence today before a jury of seven woman and five men.

Mrs Nicholas claims the three accused raped her and indecently assaulted her with a baton in a police house in Rutland Street, Rotorua, in January 1986.

Mrs Nicholas also alleges Rickards and Shipton visited her at her flat between six and 12 times from September, 1985, to December 1986, for sexual intercourse and oral sex without her consent.

Mrs Nicholas said she told the accused she did not want them there but was intimidated by their big size and stature.

All three have denied the charges and said the sex they had with Mrs Nicholas was with her consent.

They also said the Rutland Street incident when the police baton was alleged to have been used, did not happen.

The trial was expected to last for the rest of this week and next week.

Accused tell of sex encounters

2006-03-18T19:55:00.000-08:00

NZ Herald
Accused tell of sex encounters
18.03.06
By Nicola Boyes

The three men Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas has accused of raping her 20 years ago have said in statements that she consented to all their sexual encounters, enjoyed them and at times instigated the contact.

Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards and former police officers Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton face 20 charges between them including the rape, indecent assault and sexual violation of Louise Nicholas between 1985 and 1986.

Mrs Nicholas has said she was intimidated by their size, stature and the fact that they were policemen and that they forced her to have sex.

The High Court at Auckland yesterday was read statements the men made in 1995 about the allegations.

All of the accused said Mrs Nicholas had consented to any sexual encounters they had and said an alleged incident in which she was sexually abused with a police baton was a fabrication.

Rickards' statement said that he had sex with her twice and that she had played up to him. He said he was "embarrassed" the inquiry had gone as far as it had with the evidence of an unreliable witness being preferred over that of three police officers.

In their statements, the men detailed where they had sex with Mrs Nicholas, Shipton saying she was a casual sexual acquaintance of his. "She loved policemen, and it was obvious," he said in the statement.

Schollum said he had been a family friend of Mrs Nicholas' father, who was involved in Search and Rescue.

He said when Nicholas was 16 and living in a caravan park with her parents he had seen her while working a night shift.

He said he had arranged to meet her at the caravan where they had sex in the awning.

The trial will continue on Monday.

Husband tells of dress gift for Louise Nicholas

2006-03-17T20:20:00.000-08:00

NZ Herald
Husband tells of dress gift for Louise Nicholas
17.03.06
By Claire Harvey

The thought of a white dress, a dress he bought his young girlfriend 20 years ago on holiday, makes Ross Nicholas cry.

He is telling an ordinary story, about how when he was 21 and took a pretty young secretary on holiday to Whangamata, how they saw the dress in a surf shop, how he bought it for her.

They were new lovers then; he'd first admired Louise Crawford, as she was then, when she was a checkout girl at the K-Market fruit shop in Rotorua.

They got together in November 1985. "When we got there [to Whangamata] it was pouring with rain, so we went shopping, I saw a nice white dress that she liked so I ... " Mr Nicholas gasps, shakes his head, crumples his chin, looks down at his hands.

The court crier pushes a box of tissues towards Mr Nicholas; he takes one and buries his eyes in it; lips shaking, letting out the occasional snort; embarrassingly loud in the silence of vast Courtroom 12.

The jurors know why this 40-year-old man is crying over a dress. It is the dress his wife claims she was wearing on the day she accuses then-policemen Brad Shipton, Bob Schollum and Clint Rickards of raping her and assaulting her with a police baton. This is the dress Mrs Nicholas says they pulled off her, even though she bunched it underneath her to try to keep it on.

"I was sitting on the bed, because of the length of the dress I was sitting on it, and they tried to remove the dress and finally it came off," she said in court on Tuesday.

Then off came her half-slip, bra, knickers; then they raped her, she claimed.

Now, Ross Nicholas is trying to pull himself together.

Prosecutor Mark Zarifeh keeps going with the questions, asks Mr Nicholas to describe the dress.

"It was muslin, white muslin dress with crochet on the front. It was quite expensive in those days, it was about $90," he says, the sobs subsiding to sniffs.

Defence counsel John Haigh, QC, representing Clint Rickards, wants to know if Mrs Nicholas stopped wearing the dress after this alleged rape, or if "she continued to wear that muslin dress for many, many years afterwards?"

Mr Nicholas nods, thinks for a second - yes, she kept wearing it through the 1980s. "Yeah, the last time I remember her wearing it was someone's wedding we were at once, she was wearing it."

Mr Nicholas says he never personally met any of the three men, whom his wife accuses of regularly visiting her at home during the day, expecting sex and getting it.

But half an hour later, Mr Nicholas has to admit he might be mistaken about another of his memories.

He tells the jury how one day, after he hurt his back chopping firewood for Louise, he was resting alone at her Corlett St house in the middle of the day when Shipton and Rickards arrived at the door, in uniform.

"There was a knock on the door ... I could see a blue sort of image through the glass, so I opened it. I think they were quite surprised to see that I was there, just the way they looked at me. They said, 'Is Trevor [Clayton, another officer] here?' I said no ... they just turned around and walked away."

Under cross-examination from Haigh, Mr Nicholas has to admit that in a police statement in 1995 he described the same incident involving Shipton and Schollum, not Shipton and Rickards.

"Well, see, I didn't know what was happening in those days, so for all I know I could have got it wrong back then [in 1995] ... I must have got it wrong," Mr Nicholas says.

He's sure now, he tells the court later under Crown re-examination. "Now, thinking about it, it was Brad Shipton and Clint Rickards."

The questions over, Mr Nicholas leaves the witness box and walks out of court, still holding his tissue.

Nicholas' flatmate unhappy with police version of her statement

2006-03-17T19:59:00.000-08:00

NZ Herald
Nicholas' flatmate unhappy with police version of her statement
17.03.06
By Nicola Boyes

A former flatmate of Louise Nicholas says she was not happy with the way police reported her version of crucial events in the case.

Since 1995 the woman, who has name suppression, has made a series of statements to police about Mrs Nicholas' claims that Assistant Commissioner Clint Rickards and former police officers Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum raped her.

The three face 20 charges including rape, indecent assault and sexual violation dating between 1985 and 1986.

The woman was quoted in a 1995 statement to Detective Inspector Rex Miller as saying both she and Mrs Nicholas had sex with the men and Mrs Nicholas "certainly wasn't saying no".

In a 2004 statement read to Justice Tony Randerson and the jury yesterday, she said she was not happy about how her words had been taken down.

All she could say was that Mrs Nicholas was not "kicking and screaming".

In her first statement she admitted nothing - saying she did not even know the men, although the name Rickards was familiar.

In her second statement she said she knew them.

Both she and Mrs Nicholas had sex with them but she had hoped that by saying nothing it would go away because she was "embarrassed" about her past.

In the third statement, taken in 2004, she said she did not know why Mr Miller had worded things the way he had.

"I can see all they came round for was sex," her statement read.

"I have a memory of not wanting to be part of it. It could have been because I was getting the creeps from Brad. Brad was quite big back then. "I have this recollection of them arriving and I went into my room and closed my door," she said.

On another occasion she remembered Shipton trying to "smooth-talk" her into having sex.

She did not say no but he had smooth-talked her.

She said all she could say was Mrs Nicholas was not "kicking and screaming" the time she did see her having sex with one of the men.

But she also said at that time in her life - she was 17 - she would not have been that perceptive.

She said Mr Miller had taken her words and made it sound like on one occasion she was lying beside Mrs Nicholas having sex with one of the men.

"That didn't happen like that and I don't know why Rex Miller worded it like that."

The woman did not remember Rickards being at the flat, but said she was not involved with him.

"I don't recall ever having sex with Clint Rickards. The problem is I could have and just don't want to remember it. "I also don't know if they were coming around to have sex with Louise when I wasn't there."

Mrs Nicholas was not in court yesterday but members of her family gave evidence.

Statements made by the accused in 1995 are expected to be given today.

Bitter memories revisited with weary determination

2006-03-16T20:30:00.000-08:00

NZ Herald
Bitter memories revisited with weary determination
16.03.06
By Claire Harvey

Louise Nicholas has been here before. Over and again, she has told her story of rape and degradation, listed dates and addresses and names, tried to explain why she stayed silent for so long. Through three trials, 19 police statements, counselling sessions, media interviews, through years of retelling it all, she has talked and talked.

Now, Louise Nicholas looks weary, sitting in the witness box in one corner of vast Courtroom 12, only visible from the collarbones up. She keeps her head down, staring at the floor, occasionally raising her eyes to frown at the microphone before her. She does not look at the three accused men, bulky and bulging out of dark suits at the back of the court. She does not look at the defence barristers as they suggest she is a liar, just occasionally flicks her eyes towards the bar tables as she answers the questions.

There's no outrage in Mrs Nicholas's voice as she denies lying, denies she is mistaken or has recovered these memories with the help of counsellors, relates how her claims against another policeman led to him facing two aborted trials, then a third trial that ended in his acquittal.

Over and over she denies ever consenting to sex with the men, explains how nobody would believe her, how no one could help. "No, there was never any consensual sex with these men," she says a dozen times, eyes down, intonation flat. "I had no control ... I never consented. I just couldn't stop them." Her jaw is set, muscles clenching in her cheeks.

She cried on Tuesday, describing the rapes, but now Mrs Nicholas is not going to break, not going to react to the tone of incredulity in which John Haigh, QC, counsel for Clint Rickards, demands to know why she did not complain or run away.

Mr Haigh, tall and craggy, swinging his spectacles in his right hand, is trying to re-create the drama of the moment in January 1986, as Mrs Nicholas arrived at a Rotorua police house in Rutland St, in a car driven by Bob Schollum. The other men were waiting to have sex with her, she says. Mr Haigh wants to know, if she is telling the truth, why she entered the house to be raped again? "They're standing up there on the deck in full view of you, these two rapists who had been abusing you over a period of months ... these men had been raping you in the most gross manner," Mr Haigh says as Mrs Nicholas nods and answers "Yes ... yes." "So why," Mr Haigh asks, "didn't you tell Mr Schollum: 'Go to hell, I'm not going in there, I know what those guys are like, I'm walking home?"'

The jury members are looking at their computer screens, where a photo of the house gleams cheerfully - red brick, bright blue sky, green lawn, grey stairs stretching up to the deck. They squint across at her, waiting. There is no drama in Mrs Nicholas's tone. "I didn't want what I knew was going to happen but I didn't run, I didn't, I admit it. I didn't go anywhere but inside that house ... I could do nothing."

On the cross-examination goes, as the three defendants sit at the back, Schollum leaning back in his chair, Rickards hunched forwards, Shipton writing notes in an exercise book.

Mrs Nicholas' only flash of anger comes late in the day, in response to questions about her brother's 1993 wedding from Schollum's counsel, Paul Mabey, QC. Schollum's evidence, Mabey says, will be that Nicholas lifted her skirt and showed him her suspenders. If the rape claim was true, "you wouldn't have wanted to do anything sexual with him, flirt with him?" "Oh for Pete's sakes," she snaps, looking directly at Mr Mabey for the first time. "No I definitely would not, thank you." She holds the stare for a second, shakes her head, then drops her gaze back to the floor.

Rape accuser's brother struggles with 20-year-old events

2006-03-16T13:00:00.000-08:00

NZPA
Rape accuser's brother struggles with 20-year-old events
16.03.06 1.00pm

The older brother of alleged Rotorua rape victim Louise Nicholas has told a court it is hard to accurately recall events which happened 20 years ago.

Peter Crawford was giving evidence in the trial in the High Court at Auckland today of three men Ms Nicholas says raped and sexually abused her when they were serving policemen in Rotorua in 1985 and 1986.

On trial are assistant police commissioner Clint Rickards, who is suspended on full pay, and former policemen Bradley Keith Shipton and Robert Schollum.

They have denied a total of 20 charges of rape and sexual abuse.

Mr Crawford described his family's close association with police when they lived in Murupara in the mid 1980s.

He said he became good friends with several police officers, including the accused Schollum.

Mr Crawford moved to Rotorua about 1985 and used to drink at the Rotorua police bar and Cobb & Co with all three accused during the period the alleged rape and abuse occurred.

He said Shipton and Rickards were "big guys" who used to work out in the gym but he said he never saw them working out.

He said he saw both men in team policing uniforms, which he described as a long dark trench coat-like jacket.

Ms Nicholas said in her evidence that Shipton and Rickards regularly visited her for sex without her consent.

Sometimes they wore police uniform, sometimes they wore suits, she said.

Defence lawyers suggested the men were in the CIB and did not wear uniforms.

Mr Crawford said he has seen Shipton and Rickards in uniform.

In cross-examination Schollum's lawyer Paul Mabey QC told Mr Crawford he was not interested in evidence he "may have heard".

"We don't really deal in guessing Mr Crawford," Mr Mabey said. Mr Crawford said he could only go with what he had been told -- it was 20 years ago.

The trial is expected to last three weeks.

Ex-flatmate says Louise Nicholas 'wasn't saying no'

2006-03-16T03:45:00.000-08:00

NZ Herald
Ex-flatmate says Louise Nicholas 'wasn't saying no'
16.03.06
By Nicola Boyes

Louise Nicholas' credibility was repeatedly attacked in the High Court at Auckland yesterday when a former flatmate was said to have seen her having consensual sex with policemen she alleges raped her 20 years ago.

A defence lawyer revealed that the flatmate had said Nicholas "certainly wasn't saying no" during sexual encounters with the policemen.

Mrs Nicholas has always claimed she was home alone when Assistant Commissioner Clint Rickards or Brad Shipton visited her Corlett St flat in Rotorua between 1985 and 1986.

Yesterday, however, Rickards' lawyer, John Haigh, QC, questioned her about statements by the flatmate describing the atmosphere at the house as friendly and saying Mrs Nicholas never looked upset when the officers left.

Rickards and former policemen Shipton and Bob Schollum face 20 charges between them including rape, indecent assault and sexual violation.

Mr Haigh said the flatmate, who cannot be named, said she had come home one day and seen Mrs Nicholas having sex with Shipton or Schollum. "To me she certainly wasn't saying no," the woman said. "Whenever the fellows called, they were always welcomed into the house. There was always a friendly atmosphere of laughing and joking."

She recalled one day when Mrs Nicholas had been in one room with Schollum or Rickards and she was in the lounge having sex with Shipton. "It is possible Louise and I then swapped partners but I have no specific memory of it," her statement said.

She also said Mrs Nicholas never seemed upset when the men left or unhappy they were there.

In court yesterday, Mrs Nicholas repeatedly told Mr Haigh her flatmate's recollection was different from hers.

She was home alone when Rickards and Shipton came around. Mr Haigh: "She records that on one occasion she came into your bedroom and you were having sex with one or other of Mr Shipton or Mr Schollum and she lurked around the bottom of the bed." Mrs Nicholas: "No, it did not happen."

She alleges the three men forced her to have group sex and she was indecently assaulted with a police baton in January 1986. She says Schollum had picked her up as she walked home from work, taking her to a police house in Rutland St.

Mr Haigh asked why she did not refuse the ride, refuse to go into the house or seek help afterwards. He said Rickards' defence was that she simply fabricated the whole incident. "I didn't want to walk up those stairs. I didn't want to get out of that car. I knew what was going to happen. I knew there was going to be group sex with these men again and I had no control over that. That had been stripped from me ages ago," she said.

Mr Haigh: "Why didn't you walk home?" Mrs Nicholas: "And then what?...they're going to come back again as they had been. These guys are cops; I feared them; I didn't want what was going to happen."

Abuse had been part of her life since she was a 13-year-old growing up in Murupara, she said.

The court heard that she had made allegations against four officers working at the police station during that time. She said the conditioning of her life was that if she made complaints, nothing would happen.

"Why didn't you tell your mother?" Mr Haigh asked. "I didn't want to tell anybody about the Rutland St incident. I thought that no one would believe me," she said.

Mr Haigh suggested she was deliberately trying to destroy Rickards and was enjoying the media attention since her case was highlighted two years ago.

She said that 2 years ago she was approached by a reporter to tell her story. The reporter showed her documents, statements and job sheets which showed she had been "duped something shocking".

Shipton's defence counsel, Bill Nabney, asked her about a party in 1986 where Schollum and Shipton had given her a ride home, claiming they had consensual sex with her in the car. "That definitely did not happen," she said.

Paul Mabey, QC, questioned her about a schoolteacher who claimed Mrs Nicholas had told her she had been raped by a group of Maori on horseback. Mrs Nicholas said the teacher's recollection was wrong. He questioned her about a statement where she said she had got drunk and had consensual sex with Schollum at a house in Kusab St.

Mr Mabey said Schollum bought the house in Kusab St in February 1986, after the alleged Rutland St incident. "It's in the statement. I must have said it but I don't remember having sex in Kusab St," she said.

Mr Mabey questioned her about her brother Peter's wedding in February 1993 where Schollum was invited and was filming guests. He asked her if she had danced with Schollum that day or flirted with him. "No, I definitely would not, thank you." Did she remember lifting up her skirt and showing him her suspender belt? Mr Mabey asked. "Is it on the video? No I did not." Mrs Nicholas' family, including her mother and brother, are expected to start giving evidence today.

Leading policeman in court on sex charges

2005-10-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

NZPA
Leading policeman in court on sex charges
25.10.05 11.00am

Three current and former policemen accused of the sexual assault of Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas were due back in court today for pre trial applications to be heard.

The men, assistant commissioner Clinton John Tukotahi Rickards and former officers Bradley Keith Shipton and Robert Francis Schollum, will go to trial in March.

Today's hearing in the High Court in Auckland was in chambers, meaning it cannot be reported other than to say the pre-trial applications were being heard.

Justice Randerson earlier ruled it would be prejudicial to the trial if the pre-trial applications were given publicity.

The trial in the High Court at Auckland is expected to last three weeks.

The accused face 20 charges dating back to 1986 when the three were working as police officers in Rotorua.

All three deny the allegations.

Police Rape Plaintiff too drunk to stand

2005-08-03T01:22:00.000-07:00

Police rape plaintiff too drunk to stand
03.08.05
By Nicola Boyes

The woman who has made historical rape allegations against a high-ranking Waikato police officer says she was so drunk she could not stand up when he came into her room. The woman worked at Rotorua police station when the alleged rape happened in February 1984, at a birthday party.

Giving evidence in the High Court at Hamilton yesterday, the woman said she had been drinking the whole night and after becoming so intoxicated she fell over a couch, she went to bed. "I was standing at the end of my bed, that's the foot end and [he] was in my room," the woman told Crown prosecutor Ben Vanderkolk. She said she fell onto her bed and the next thing she felt was the man, who has interim name suppression, on top of her, then him having sex with her and she passed out. "Whether I passed out through too much alcohol or went to sleep, I wasn't awake," she said. Her flatmate gave evidence that as she was walking past the woman's room she saw her trying to push a man out of her room. "I can see [her] in her room just inside the door of her room pushing someone away," her flatmate said.

The woman told defence counsel Philip Morgan, QC, when police investigating the alleged rape contacted her, she did not want to discuss the party or remember. The complainant described to the court a culture in the police at the time she worked in Rotorua. She said of 120 staff at the station there were only five female officers. She and her colleagues would drink at the police bar on Wednesday, their pay-day, or Fridays. They ran "Sunday Schools", getting off their shift at 5am on a Sunday and starting a drinking session either at the station or at somebody's house. She said there was an expectation that everyone from the section would attend and they would play drinking games. "We would generally drink until drunk, it wasn't uncommon to drive home drunk in the early 80's, I don't think there was such a stigma about drink driving."

The night of the party at her flat she said she was "very very drunk". She said a traffic officer she was interested in was at the party, but after he followed her around like a "lap dog" she had punched his face. The traffic officer, Tom Bowater, also gave evidence yesterday. He told the court he had no recollection of the party. He told investigating police last year that the woman looked familiar though he did not recollect being punched. It was not until last year, police investigating the woman's allegations, showed him a picture of the woman, that he said and she looked familiar. but he did not know why. He did not recollect being punched. The trial before Justice Rodney Hansen is to continue until Friday.

Dewar loses grievance case

2005-07-19T17:35:00.000-07:00

The Dominion Post
July 19 2005
Dewar loses grievance case

A former detective accused of covering up Louise Nicholas' allegations against police officers has been ordered to pay $9300 after losing a personal grievance case.

Former Rotorua CIB police chief John Dewar was accused by Mrs Nicholas last year of covering up her complaints against Clint Rickards, Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton in the 1980s. The trio have since been charged in relation to the Rotorua woman's allegations, which they deny. The precise nature of the charges is suppressed.

Mr Dewar has been charged with four counts of obstructing the course of justice.
When Mrs Nicholas' allegation were revealed in The Dominion Post last year, Mr Dewar was working as the human resources manager for the Hamilton-based St John Midland ambulance service. Mr Dewar and the service's chief executive Eddie Jackson agreed that he should take special leave on full pay till a commission of inquiry into police conduct, which arose from Mrs Nicholas' claims, was completed.

Though the leave was consensual, Mr Dewar later complained to the Employment Relations Authority over matters relating to the loss of his own employment records and workplace restrictions imposed.

Mr Dewar said he had taken reasonable and practicable steps to resolve his employment problem internally with St John Midland.

When he felt legal action was inevitable he confined his case to a day- and-a-half presentation but a "Rolls- Royce" legal representation by his employers had sent their legal costs soaring.
St John Midland's lawyer, Peter Churchman, said a Wellington law firm was hired because Mr Dewar had already engaged the law firm usually used by the ambulance service. Mr Churchman argued that the level of legal representation had also contained costs and noted that Mr Dewar continued to receive his salary of around $100,000 a year.

Mr Dewar appealed to the authority, when deciding costs, to consider that he had a young family and was already in some debt as a result of legal bills associated with the commission of inquiry and separate criminal proceedings over he and his wife failing to keep their dog under control.
Authority member Yvonne Oldfield said Mr Dewar "does not face any particular hardship" and was in a position to make an informed choice about proceeding with his claims.

But she said St John Midland's original claim of $23,500 was "extreme" for this particular investigation, ruling that two-thirds of that claim was more appropriate. Mr Dewar was ordered to pay costs of $8000 and disbursements of $1332.

2005-06-20T17:32:00.000-07:00

The Press
June 20 2005
No charges over alleged rape
by Jarrod Booker

No charges will be laid against a police officer accused of raping a Christchurch woman 18 years ago.

An investigation was launched into the allegation against the Bay of Plenty officer after former prostitute Niki Koster made the rape complaint last year.

She complained to police after Louise Nicholas went public with allegations she was pack-raped and violated with a baton by three police officers in Rotorua in 1986.

Koster told The Press she was raped after drinking with officers in Rotorua on the night in 1987. She claimed she was taken to a Rotorua house to sleep off a night of heavy drinking and woke to find an officer having sex with her. Too drunk and scared to fight him off, her pleas for him to stop went unheeded, she claimed.

"I suppressed it for a lot of years and now I want to talk about it. I feel I have a story. You don't know who you can trust – even if they have got a uniform on," she said. "The Rotorua police was like a gang. Just the way they acted. It was quite scary."

Koster was working at a massage parlour in Mount Maunganui, Chances R, in 1987 when the alleged incident happened. She had earlier been arrested and charged for possession of cannabis.

Bay of Plenty police District Commander Gary Smith said the investigation into Koster's claim had been completed and no charges laid. The officer concerned, who remains in the police, was interviewed as part of the investigation.

"The Crown solicitor at Christchurch reviewed the investigation and recommended that no charges be brought. Crown Law in Wellington ... concurred with (the recommendation)," he said.

2005-06-20T17:30:00.000-07:00

The Dominion Post
June 20 2005
Policeman cleared

No charges will be laid against a police officer accused of raping a Christchurch woman in Rotorua 18 years ago. An investigation was launched into the allegation against the Bay of Plenty officer after former prostitute Niki Koster made the rape complaint last year.

Dewar appears in court

2005-05-05T17:26:00.000-07:00

Newstalk ZB
May 5 2005
Dewar appears in court

The officer who first investigated complaints against police by Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas, is accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Former senior detective John Dewar appeared in the Hamilton District Court today on four counts of attempting to obstruct, pervert or defeat the course of justice.

Assistant Commissioner Clint Rickards and former policemen Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton have been charged over the Louise Nicholas matter.

Dewar, who was chief inspector of the Rotorua CIB when Mrs Nicholas went to police in 1993, allegedly told her not to make a complaint.

A subsequent Police Complaints Authority investigation into Dewar's handling of the case cleared him of any crime or disciplinary offence, but said he showed lack of judgement and competence.

Former cop to stand trial

2005-03-17T17:20:00.000-08:00

Newstalk ZB
March 7 2005 18:12
Former cop to stand trial

Police did not take a statement from a woman who says one of their officers raped her, despite her laying the complaint within hours of the alleged incident.

Former Far North police officer Timothy Ogle has been committed to stand trial on the 17-year-old charges.

The woman says she was reluctantly giving the drunken Ogle a ride home when he tricked her into getting out of her car, handcuffed her, and repeatedly raped her in a Kaitaia police station office.

She reported it the next day and a superior of Ogle's came to visit her.

But he did not make any notes, or take a statement from her.

Ogle left the police after facing disciplinary action over what happened that evening.

He denies four counts of rape and a number of other sex charges.

Woman tells court of 1988 sex assault at station.

2005-03-08T17:15:00.000-08:00

The Dominion Post
March 8 2005
Woman tells court of 1988 sex assault at station.

Seventeen years ago a woman gave an off-duty policeman a ride home after a night at the Awanui Hotel in Kaitaia.
People remember her commenting: "If you can't be safe with a policeman, who can you be safe with?"

Yesterday the former officer, Timothy Nicholas Ogle, a 45-year-old investigator now living in Queensland, was committed for trial on eight charges relating to that March 1988 night -- including four counts of rape, two of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, one of attempted sexual violation and one of assault.

The woman's statement, presented to the court yesterday, says they stopped at the local police station to pick up his running gear and, while there, he handcuffed her, took her inside and raped her.

The married father of three had smelled of alcohol and vomit as he kissed her with an open mouth, and she became frightened as she realised this was no joke.

She enjoyed it, he told her afterward. And he could get her "in lots of ways" if she told on him, her statement says.

He thought he had done all right considering all the grog he had that night, she remembers him saying, before she drove him home.

Ogle denies all charges but was committed yesterday for trial after conceding there was a case to answer at a depositions hearing in Auckland District Court.

He remains on bail and is free to return to Australia. The complainant has automatic name suppression.

Judge Fred McElrea refused an application by Ogle for his continued interim name suppression as it would place his former police colleagues under suspicion.

In a written statement, the complainant said she called a policeman friend the day after the attack to ask how to make a rape complaint -- he told her to tell a policeman.

What if the rapist is a policeman, she had asked. "And he said something like, `Oh dear or Christ'."

He thought he should go to detectives in another town, but later called her back to say regulations required him to report the matter to his commanding officer, Sergeant Colin Yates.
Mr Yates and Ogle had both been at the hotel before the alleged rape.

The sergeant came to her that evening and she told him about trying to leave hair and fingerprints at the scene, and about a shirt she had used to clean herself up that had been returned to a locker.

He did not take notes and no formal statement was taken till June, her statement said.
The woman's boyfriend at the time, Ross Atkinson, who had worked at the hotel bar that night, said he went to her place that night about 3.30am.

"That was a great mate you sent me home with," she said, and she cried as he tried to find out what she meant. He asked if she had been raped and they spent a couple of hours discussing what to do about it.

He suggested she talk to Mr Yates, whom he knew -- it was the sergeant who had asked Mr Atkinson if she would be able to give Ogle a ride.

The police officer who investigated the woman's rape complaint in June 1988, Brian McFadden, now a consultant in Auckland, said under cross-examination that he had dealt with the crown solicitor in Whangarei, the police legal section and the police superintendent about the matter.
When all inquiries had been made and advice received, no charges were laid.

Though Mr McFadden could not remember having the conversation, there was a record in his notebook that the woman's lawyer had said they were satisfied with the thoroughness of the investigation, whatever the outcome, and would not make a public fuss.

The complainant took a civil case in 1994, Mr McFadden said.

Detective Inspector John Franklin, of Nelson, reinvestigated the case over six months last year before Ogle was charged.

He said Ogle's reaction to being formally charged was: "I am totally innocent."

Family ties in botched police rape inquiries by Rachel Grunwell

2004-02-22T05:02:00.000-08:00

Sunday Star Times
February 22, 2004
Family ties in botched police rape inquiries
by Rachel Grunwell

Allegations against cop's cousin were ignored `Because the rapist enjoyed a "good relationship" with officers, police refused to believe he was capable of any wrong-doing.' Former policeman Bob Schollum, one of three men facing pack-rape allegations in the Louise Nicholas case, is the cousin of a rapist at the centre of two botched police rape investigations. Schollum worked as an officer at Murupara around the time staff ignored two rape complaints involving his cousin. One case was later investigated by different staff and the man was jailed. But Schollum said yesterday he knew "absolutely nothing" of both cases and was mystified about why a police report said he was interviewed in relation to the cases. Asked whether the fact his cousin was the accused may have led police to ignore the complaints, Schollum said he did not know if staff knew they were related.

In both cases, it was later recommended by former detective inspector Graham Bell that police commissioner Rob Robinson apologise for police inaction. But only one victim has so far received a formal apology. Name suppression was this month lifted for one of these victims, Rhondda Herbert-Savage, to whom Robinson apologised in 2000. Herbert-Savage was twice raped as a teenager in Murupara in the 1980s. The same man who raped Herbert-Savage also sexually offended against three girls and police failed to properly act on this complaint. In a report written in 1996, Bell said policing in Murupara at the time was superficial and that because the rapist enjoyed a "good relationship" with officers, police refused to believe he was capable of any wrongdoing so did not record the complaints or investigate. Schollum said yesterday he no longer had contact with his cousin. Bell's report said the three girls' case "did not receive the police attention it deserved" and Herbert-Savage's case was "grossly inadequate". Herbert-Savage fought for her apology and wants compensation, but the mother of the three girls was unaware police had also recommended an apology for her case. Bell said in the report there was no doubt in his mind the mother reported the sexual abuse of her daughters to then-sergeant Warren Smith in Murupara immediately after she found one of her children in bed with the offender. "I have no doubt that sergeant Smith went to the house and took (the offender) away as described by (the mother) but that from there, no further action was taken. No explanation for this dereliction of duty is given by the sergeant as he claims to have no recollection of the events," said Bell. All officers at the station knew about the complaints but did nothing, he said.

It was after the girls again complained and the man was jailed that Herbert-Savage's mishandled complaint came to light. The man was tried for her rape but was acquitted. However, Bell said he had no doubt the man was guilty but the case was hindered because of the delay to court and lost medical evidence. A government-ordered commission of inquiry into police behaviour follows Louise Nicholas' allegations Schollum, now a Napier car salesman, Tauranga city councillor Brad Shipton and police assistant commissioner Clint Rickards, pack-raped her as a teenager in Rotorua in the 1980s. All three men deny this and say the sex was consensual.

Top policeman socialised at club with Rickards

2004-02-17T04:53:00.000-08:00

NZ Herald
February 17, 2004
Top policeman socialised at club with Rickards
by Patrick Gower

Police Commissioner Rob Robinson socialised with Clint Rickards in the Rotorua police club when they worked there together about the same time an alleged pack-rape involving police occurred. For three months in late 1985, Mr Robinson was on secondment as a sergeant in the CIB while Mr Rickards was a junior member of one of its squads.

Mr Robinson has not wanted to speak to the Herald about his time there but released a statement saying he knew Mr Rickards, Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum at the time they have been accused by Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas of raping and violating her a with baton in a police house sometime around 1986. He acknowledges he may be required to give evidence about his time in Rotorua to both the reopened criminal inquiry or to the Government-ordered commission of inquiry.

Mr Robinson said he came into social contact with Mr Rickards "possibly during occasional attendance at the police club and as a spectator at some sports events". He said the same went for Mr Shipton. He could not recall any contact with Mr Schollum during his secondment but said they had both been constables together in Palmerston North in the 1970s. Mr Robinson said he did not stay in a police house while he was in Rotorua but in private accommodation. Public records show that when his secondment began in October 1985, Mr Shipton and his wife were living in the house where Mrs Nicholas says she was raped.

Mr Robinson took up a new job in Wellington at the start of 1986. Mr Robinson promoted Mr Rickards to become one of his top decision-makers. However, new documents the Herald has obtained under the Official Information Act do show he did "express reservations" about Mr Rickards' suitability when he was shortlisted for the job of deputy commissioner in 2000. Mr Robinson did not elaborate on them to State Services Commissioner Michael Wintringham but later briefed Prime Minister Helen Clark on the allegations against Mr Rickards. She then decided to recommend the other candidate, Steve Long - the deputy commissioner now in charge of investigating the allegations against Mr Rickards. Mr Robinson stood down Mr Rickards as assistant commissioner responsible for the Auckland District when the investigation was reopened two weeks ago.

Mr Rickards, Mr Shipton and Mr Schollum all vigorously deny the allegations of rape but admit having consensual sex with Mrs Nicholas. Mr Robinson said he was not aware of any information from his time in Rotorua that could assist the criminal inquiry, but he would be happy to assist. He said he would also be at the full disposal of the commission of inquiry. Mr Robinson said he did not think his links with Rotorua now made his position difficult. He said Mr Long had his own authority under warrant from the Governor-General and could therefore run it independently of him. Despite Mr Robinson's misgivings about the suitability of Mr Rickards for the deputy commissioner's job, the Herald has also revealed he was involved in promoting Mr Rickards four times after learning of the rape allegations in 1997.

A police officer (now retired) who led a Police Complaints Authority inquiry into the handling of the rape allegations said he warned Mr Robinson at the time of the first of those promotions "you will regret this decision for years to come".

Rotorua police district damned in report

2004-02-15T04:11:00.000-08:00

Sunday Star Times
February 15, 2004
Rotorua police district damned in report
By Rachel Grunwell

An official investigation into police mishandling of a rape complaint criticised at least one officer and named others who have come under fire in the Louise Nicholas inquiry. It shows that police headquarters have long been aware of failures by officers stationed in the Rotorua policing district at the time Nicholas claims her rape complaints were mishandled. The inquiry was into the mishandling of a complaint of rape made by Rhondda Herbert-Savage in the 1980s, and was carried out by then-detective inspector Graham Bell. It damns the handling of her inquiry and the police culture in Murupara, part of the Rotorua district, at the time.

Herbert-Savage allowed the Sunday Star-Times to help her lift her name suppression in the High Court at Rotorua last Friday. She said she wanted the suppression automatically accorded to sex attack victims lifted to let her childhood friend Nicholas know she was not alone. Nicholas has accused three men - assistant commissioner Clint Rickards and two former officers Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum - of raping her in a Rotorua house in 1986. The three deny the rape claims and say the sex was consensual. The officer in charge of the police re-investigation into Nicholas' claims, superintendent Nick Perry, said eight officers from outside Rotorua had started interviewing people connected with the allegations. Thirty people had been interviewed already in the Bay of Plenty including Nicholas, who was questioned on Friday, twice yesterday and will undergo more interviews this week. Rickards, Schollum and Shipton were yet to be questioned.

Herbert-Savage, then aged 14, complained to police in 1981 she had been raped twice. In his report to headquarters, written in 1996, Bell wrote that the man accused of the rape was friends with police officers at the time, and that police handling of the complaint was "woefully inadequate". He singled out the actions of then constable Trevor Clayton, to whom Herbert-Savage initially complained, as "a gross neglect of duty". Clayton, who died last year, is recorded in police documents regarding the Nicholas case as being prepared, on oath, to "protect his mates" if asked about her in court. "It is clear at the time police did nothing whatsoever about this (Herbert-Savage's) complainant," Bell wrote in his report. Bob Schollum was also interviewed by Bell. Another officer, who won name suppression after being acquitted of sex charges, was also interviewed by Bell. He has also been named in connection with the Nicholas inquiry. The Murupara station's boss at the time, sergeant Warren Smith, was also criticised over the Herbert-Savage case. Smith was transferred from Murupara for disciplinary reasons following a police internal finding of dereliction of duty, but it is not known what this related to. One of the officers at this tribunal hearing described Smith's attitude in refusing to take action as "typical of the sergeant at the time". However, Bell said Smith had been rehabilitated since these incidents and went on to perform duties to a satisfactory standard. Smith perfed from the police only weeks ago.

East Coast MP Janet Mackey is delivering Herbert-Savage's case files to Attorney-General Margaret Wilson's office tomorrow to see if they could be included in the commission of inquiry. The terms of the inquiry are due tomorrow.

Investigator joined in group sex

2004-02-14T04:04:00.000-08:00

NZ Herald
February 14, 2004
Investigator 'joined in group sex'
by Eugene Bingham and Phil Taylor

The scandal over the alleged cover-up of a claimed police pack-rape deepened last night with fresh allegations of inappropriate sex in the force - this time against the officer who originally investigated Louise Nicholas' complaint.

The former detective inspector in charge of the Rotorua CIB, John Dewar, who handled Mrs Nicholas' accusation that she was raped by three officers, was last night accused, with one of the alleged rapists, Brad Shipton, of having group sex with another woman. The woman claimed on One News that she was manipulated into having sex in the mid-1980s with Mr Dewar, Mr Shipton and a third officer, Clint Rickards, who has been stood down as Auckland's police commander pending the outcome of an inquiry into the cover-up claims and a fresh criminal investigation. Mr Dewar has maintained that it was appropriate for him to have carried out the investigation into Mrs Nicholas' allegations because he had nothing but a professional relationship with Mr Rickards, Mr Shipton and the third officer, Bob Schollum.

A commission of inquiry will look at Mr Dewar's handling of the case after Mrs Nicholas came forward in 1993 and said Mr Shipton, Mr Rickards and Mr Schollum attacked her at a police house in about 1986. A Police Complaints Authority inquiry found that Mr Dewar had failed to record and investigate the allegations, actions it said showed a gross lack of judgment and competence. The three men strenuously deny raping or violating Mrs Nicholas, who was 18 at the time. They do admit to having consensual sex with her. With the inquiry expected to probe police culture in Rotorua at the time, the Weekend Herald can today reveal that Commissioner Rob Robinson spent time there in 1985.

There are also further questions about the relationship between Mr Dewar and Mr Rickards amid revelations that Mr Rickards gave a verbal reference for Mr Dewar when he was employed as human resources manager for St John in the Waikato about two years ago. Mr Dewar and his lawyer did not return calls seeking comment about the One News allegations. Lawyers for Mr Rickards and Mr Shipton said they had no comment.

TVNZ said it had an affidavit from a former Rotorua woman saying she formed a relationship with Mr Shipton after suffering a family tragedy in the mid-1980s. She said that she agreed to the group sex at the time but now believed the officers had abused a position of trust. "I was vulnerable and really upset at the time and they preyed on that emotion and that is what got me into that situation," she said. Most of the sessions involved Mr Shipton and Mr Rickards, although one was with Mr Dewar, whom she said Mr Shipton described as his boss and friend. The woman said Mr Rickards would use a police car to drive her to meetings with Mr Shipton near Tauranga, where they would have roadside sex. She said that her last contact with any of the men was within the past two years, when Mr Rickards rang to ask her whether she was happily married.

Rob Robinson worked in Rotorua

2004-02-14T04:01:00.000-08:00

NZ Herald
February 14, 2004
Rob Robinson worked in Rotorua
by Patrick Gower

Police Commissioner Rob Robinson worked for a short time as a policeman in Rotorua, with the officers that Louise Nicholas has accused of pack rape. Mr Robinson, who was a sergeant in the Rotorua CIB between October and December 1985, might have to give evidence to the inquiries into the allegations.

Mrs Nicholas alleges she was raped and violated with a police baton by Rotorua officers Clint Rickards, Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum in a police house in about 1986. All three strongly deny the accusations. Mr Robinson had spent most of 1985 off on leave without pay and was in the throes of leaving the police on medical grounds until deciding to return after a knee reconstruction operation. In the three months Mr Robinson was in Rotorua, official police records show Mr Rickards had been selected for CIB duties and was undergoing his induction. It is understood Mr Schollum was also attached to the CIB. Mr Shipton was a uniformed officer and public records show that in October 1985 he and his wife were living in the police house where Mrs Nicholas alleges she was pack raped.

Mr Robinson declined to answer a series of questions yesterday about his time in Rotorua. He said he recalled that the Rotorua station "was a busy one at that time". But he did not want to talk about the police culture in Rotorua in the 1980s before the terms of reference of the commission of inquiry were released.

More revelations in cop rape case

2004-02-13T03:58:00.000-08:00

One News
February 13, 2004
More revelations in cop rape case

A former top detective who investigated police rape claims is now being accused of having a close relationship with the people he investigated. A Rotorua woman says she was manipulated into group sex with several officers, including Clint Rickards and - on one separate occasion - the CIB boss who later led an inquiry into Rickards' behaviour.A woman who suffered a family tragedy in the mid-1980s which brought her into contact with Rotorua police says she developed a relationship with officer Brad Shipton.She says that led to at least six group sex encounters with then-detective Shipton, now a Tauranga city councillor, and Clint Rickards - now suspended from his job as assistant commissioner in Auckland.

The former Rotorua woman says she agreed to the group sex but now feels the men betrayed a position of trust."I was vulnerable and really upset at the time and they preyed on those emotions and that's what got me into that situation," she said.One News has an affidavit signed by the woman in which she claims one sex session involved Shipton and the former head of Rotorua CIB, John Dewar.Several years later Dewar investigated claims made by Nicholas that she was raped and sexually violated with a police baton by police officers Brad Shipton, Clint Rickards and Bob Schollum.Asked whether John Dewar was a friend of Shipton's, the woman told One News that he said that he was his boss and his friend and that he had just moved to Rotorua.However, former Detective Inspector John Dewar maintains his relationship with the trio at the centre of the Nicholas allegations was strictly professional and he denies any cover up.He told the New Zealand Herald on February 2: "I would challenge anyone to come forward and tell me what relationship I have with those men. We don't socialise or go to each other's homes, we don't call each other up."

Nicholas' allegations against Rickards, Shipton and Schollum are being investigated by the police, the Police Complaints Authority and an independent commission of inquiry.The latest complainant says Clint Rickards would use a police car to drive her to meet Shipton near Tauranga, and the trio would have sex, parked on the roadside.She says that on one occasion Rickards got a call out and wanted to "just leave me there because he wanted to go to the call out". She says she objected and made him take her back to Rotorua.The woman says her last contact with the men was within the last two years.She says at that time Rickards called her to ask if she was happily married.

One News tried to get a response from Dewar and his lawyer about the allegations but they did not return calls. Neither did the lawyers acting for Shipton and Rickards.

Police sex inquiry widens

2004-02-13T03:52:00.000-08:00

Dominion Post
February 13, 2004
Police sex inquiry widens
by Philip Kitchin

A former Rotorua teenager says a policeman lured her for sex to the same house in which Louise Nicholas claims she was pack-raped by three police officers. The woman, who was about 16 at the time and was on school job experience wanting to be a policewoman, alleges that Bob Schollum had sex with her, and that another officer, Brad Shipton, tried to join in. She told One News last night that the incident, in the 1980s, destroyed her career ambitions and her trust in police.

Police confirmed that she made a formal complaint to them yesterday and said it would be looked at alongside the investigation into Mrs Nicholas' allegations that she was pack-raped by Mr Schollum, Mr Shipton and Clint Rickards when all three were policemen in Rotorua in about 1986. Mr Schollum is now a Napier car salesman, Mr Shipton is a Tauranga city councillor and Mr Rickards is assistant police commissioner. The three have strongly denied the allegations. The Government has ordered a commission of inquiry into how police dealt with Mrs Nicholas' original complaints, and into police culture. Simultaneously, police have reopened a criminal investigation into the rape complaints.

The woman at the centre of the new allegations says that, after telling her school she wanted to be a policewoman, she went out after school in a police car with Mr Schollum and another officer about four times. "They would pick me up from my father's house . . . I'd go out with them doing police work just to see what was involved in being a police officer." The woman says she looked up to the police officers and enjoyed the work experience till the day she was telephoned by Mr Schollum, asking if she wanted to go out on an afternoon shift. "It was on a weekend because otherwise I would have been at school . . . he told me he couldn't come and pick me up this time and could I come and meet him at this house." The woman says she had never been to the house before and has never been back since, but identified it as the same house that Louise Nicholas says she was taken to in about 1986 by Mr Schollum.

Inquiries by The Dominion Post and One News have revealed that Mr Shipton lived there at the time of the incident alleged by Mrs Nicholas. The woman says she was introduced to Mr Shipton for the first time at the house. She believes she was seduced "as such I suppose is the word" into going into a bedroom to have sex with Mr Schollum. She had never had sex before. She was having intercourse with Mr Schollum when Mr Shipton walked into the bedroom. She says she was told Mr Shipton wanted to "join in . . . I told him no and I told him I wanted to leave now". According to the woman, Mr Shipton stayed watching Mr Schollum but left before the sexual act ended. She says she became frightened at what was going to happen next and told the two policemen that her father knew where she was. The two men then warned her not to say anything or she and her family would get into trouble with the police. "I would never have gone there. I would never have gone anywhere near strange men. Not knowing them, had they not been police officers . . . my father wouldn't have let me go anywhere with people that I did not know. "But because they are police officers you are supposed to trust them."

The woman says that, after seeing the allegations made by Mrs Nicholas, she waited for a few days, hoping someone else would come forward. "I really didn't want to be involved. I've got on with my life and I'm very happy at the moment. "I didn't really need to be involved but I felt somebody needed to support her." A spokesman for Prime Minister Helen Clark said last night that other "relevant cases" to Mrs Nicholas' complaints would form part of the commission of inquiry.

Rape inquiry documents relate to different case

2004-02-10T03:46:00.000-08:00

NZ Herald
February 10 2004
Rape inquiry documents relate to different case
by Phil Taylor

Documents provided by a former policeman to show he did a good job investigating pack-rape allegations against three policemen appear to relate to another case in which those men were not among the accused.

John Dewar, a former police inspector, is accused by Louise Nicholas of not properly handling her complaint of a pack rape to cover for the policemen, who were his colleagues.
He provided the Herald and TV3 with documents which he said showed he had done a good job investigating the matter and had been praised, including by the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) at the time, Sir John Jeffries.

The Herald believes the documents cannot and do not relate to the pack-rape allegations against Clint Rickards and former policemen Brad Shipton, a Tauranga District councillor, and Napier car salesman Bob Schollum. Mrs Nicholas alleges that incident occurred in a house in Rotorua owned at the time by the police department.

Herald inquiries indicate they relate to the police handling of a case alleging other police officers had committed sexual indecencies on a woman living in Murupara between 1980 and 1983.
The documents were dated between June 1994 and January 1995, the latter being the date on the letter written by Sir John in his capacity as the Police Complaints Authority.

But Judge Ian Borrin, who took over the PCA role from Sir John, confirmed to the Herald the PCA became aware of allegations of a pack rape in Rotorua by police using a baton only in May 1995, four months after the date on Sir John's letter.

Judge Borrin told the Herald he had checked the documents and "it seems to me the timeframe you have derived from the papers is accurate".

Asked whether that meant Sir John's letter - which said Mr Dewar's work was of a "very high standard" - could not relate to the Rotorua allegations, Judge Borrin said that appeared to be the case.

"The dates as you have worked them out seem to be correct but I think that any comment about that should be left to you."

Mr Dewar was quoted on 3 News on Sunday night as saying he stood by the professionalism of his inquiries into the Rotorua allegations and that the documents would prove he did not compromise the inquiry to protect his colleagues.

TV3 quoted Mr Dewar saying the Jeffries letter showed that although Mr Dewar personally believed Mrs Nicholas, his bosses had agreed there was not enough evidence to lay charges. Mr Dewar said this meant that if he was found to be incompetent, so were a lot of others.
Mr Dewar implied to the Herald another document - which says Mr Dewar "carried out a full inquiry" - related to the pack rape and baton incident. This document deals with allegations made about police based at Murupara.

The names of those accused were blanked out but Mr Dewar told the Herald they included Mr Rickards, Mr Shipton and Mr Schollum. Subsequent Herald inquiries indicate this complaint was about three other police and that neither Mr Rickards, Mr Shipton nor Mr Schollum was based at Murupara.

The Herald contacted Mr Dewar last night but the line went dead

Pack Mentality

2004-02-08T03:38:00.000-08:00

Sunday Star Times
February 8, 2004
Pack Mentality
by David Fisher

"I wonder how easy she would be," a senior male police officer says to another, referring to a female colleague. The comment was among those collected by Prue Hyman, a research associate in gender and women's studies at Victoria University, in her police-commissioned study, Women in the CIB, in 2000. Hyman interviewed dozens of officers and plans to discuss her report with police headquarters, to discover if it will be put forward to the commission of inquiry. She believes it should be be.

Women police officers told Hyman:

* "I have found the only guys who want to mentor you will end up wanting something different. "The senior people within the police who sort of start the `you're a very special person routine', and then they start visiting you at home and it goes on from there. "And they say, 'We don't work in the same station so therefore it's not going to be a problem'. Personal experience, and not once, several times. They're not junior staff, they are senior managers."

* "It's male culture and we're always considered fortunate to be there, and that's how I felt a lot of the time. It (is) only like that because of the pack - they all egg each other on. Split them up and they're not like that at all."

* "On their own they can be really nice chaps but in a group situation it is quite intimidating especially socially. "Sometimes I don't think you can blame individuals, I think you just blame the whole police system."

Police headquarters would not discuss the report.

Quiet lives with dark secrets

2004-02-07T03:30:00.000-08:00

New Zealand Herald
February 7, 2004
Quiet lives with dark secrets
by Geoff Cumming, with reporting by Phil Taylor, Jo-Marie Brown, Ainsley Thomson and Eleanor Black

The police are facing an unprecedented crisis over allegations of rape against officers. In this comprehensive report the Weekend Herald traces how long-buried secrets have come back to life:Louise Nicholas was getting on with life. She had buried her memories of repeated rapes by policemen in Murupara, a gang-rape ordeal in Rotorua, the baton, the inquiries which ran into brick walls.She had a husband and three growing children, milking to do on a nearby farm, sheep and calves to look after and, for relaxation, horse-riding. The 36-year-old had "put in a cupboard" what she alleges went on in the 1980s.Then in early December, a curly-haired reporter arrived out of the blue at their brick home in Ngakuru. About 12 families live in this lifestyle community on a back road 30 minutes' drive south of Rotorua; they call it "the village".

It was a hot day and Nicholas sat outside with the reporter, Phil Kitchin. He had something to tell her and a thick file to show her. He explained that he started on the trail two years ago after a tip from a contact.They sat in the sun for a long time as the Dominion Post reporter explained what he knew: about Nicholas' allegation that she was gang-raped and violated with a baton by three policemen in a Rotorua police house in 1986; about the secret Police Complaints Authority inquiry into the police handling of that allegation; and her claims that she had been raped by police before, starting when she was 13.The conversation would provoke claims which raise questions not just about her treatment by police but which cut to the core of police culture and attitudes to women.

The three alleged to have raped her in 1986 are Auckland's top policeman, Assistant Commissioner Clint Rickards, Brad Shipton, now a Tauranga District councillor, and Bob Schollum, a used-car salesman in Hastings. They vigorously deny the allegations which they say were thoroughly investigated a decade ago.She accuses a fourth policeman, John Dewar, then head of Rotorua CIB, of not properly investigating her claim.But Nicholas' story goes back even further, to Murupara, the tough timber town where she grew up as Louise Crawford in the 1970s. Back then, it was not quite the troublespot it would become. A sleepy mill town on the highway between Rotorua and Wairoa, it boomed in the 1950s when pine from the vast Kaingaroa Forest came on stream for logging.With hunting and fishing on its doorstep, it was a mecca for hard men who loved the great outdoors. Precut huts for single men were planted on a site bounded by the Rangitaiki River, the forest edge to the west and the rugged Ureweras to the east.By 1955 it had its first policeman, although for some years to come it would be hailed as a model for understanding between Maori and Pakeha.The Crawford family arrived in this frontier town in 1970 when Jim Crawford was appointed store supervisor at the Kaingaroa Logging Company.Louise, the second youngest of four children and the only girl, was just 3. The family had moved before, from Rotorua where she was born, to Whangarei, then back to Rotorua.Her mother Barbara took part-time jobs to make ends meet, at one stage working in the local bank.People led "very full lives", Barbara Crawford told the Herald this week. "We never sat around doing nothing. Things needed to be done and people got in and did it."It was the sort of place where everybody knew everybody else's business. "People were very friendly; it was a small community."

Louise went to Murupara Primary and Rangitahi College. Pretty and slim, she learned ballet but her real love was the outdoors. She enjoyed horseriding and hanging out on a farm with a girlfriend who lived over the back fence.Her parents helped to form a search and rescue service which would bring frequent contact with the local police.After a search or training exercise, says her childhood friend, the men would gather for a few beers, often in Jim Crawford's back shed. Neither girl was allowed in the shed during these gatherings.It was at a party after a successful search and rescue operation that, the friend claims, Louise was raped by a policeman. Twins lost in the Ureweras had been found and celebrations followed at a volunteer's house. Louise took food over and ended up staying to babysit.Her parents stayed the night and, while they slept, she was raped. When she told what had happened, her father went to "have it out" with the constable. But the complaint was not followed up."I don't think anyone believed her," says the friend. Louise did not have boyfriends and was not promiscuous. "We never hung out with boys. We had strict parents."Louise would subsequently lay rape complaints against four policemen stationed at Murupara in the early 80s, when she was aged between 13 and 15.The policemen denied it and without corroboration the matter was cleared as "not established".

For a young policeman, Murupara was hardly a sought-after posting. "In those days we had our own law here," a former search and rescue colleague of Jim Crawford recalls. "We didn't muck around with the police, really."Other locals say that in a small community, interaction with the police was routine. "We were all kind of friendly towards our cops - just treated them like mates, I suppose."But by the 1980s, the town was in a downward spiral following logging layoffs. It was an era of strikes, rising unemployment and youth crime.A book on policing in the Bay of Plenty by Jinty Rorke notes that police "inherited a serious gang problem and frequently found themselves involved in confrontations in the local hotel".Says one resident of 30 years: "The police had that 'let the family deal with it' attitude. If a fight broke out between the gangs and others they would not get involved. The local rugby guys had to step in."But for some of the young constables who came and went, this rugged spot was a chance to cut loose.Or, as former Police Association secretary Rob Moodie put it: "The attitude of young males towards women was different. We were like young bulls in a paddock."Says another local: "It's okay for anyone to have a social life, but the police were known to have more fun than others. I know of them hiring out the local pub for private functions. At one or two of these parties a couple of them got up to no good with some of the girls they invited. I heard it was all legal but I think it was still pretty weird for cops."It was a hard station to fill, says one long-serving Bay of Plenty policeman. "It was a rough town - lots of single young men and alcohol about. If you did your two years there you got to go anywhere you wanted."

Bob Schollum - one of the three policemen Nicholas alleges raped her in Rotorua - arrived in Murupara in 1980 from Palmerston North. Aged 28, he had been in the force for three years.He was not only good at his job but, locals say, "very good-looking".Schollum and another officer, Constable Trevor Clayton, became friendly with the Crawfords through search and rescue. Nicholas' childhood friend told the Herald that Schollum, like a trusted uncle, used to take the young Louise for drives.Clayton formed a friendship with Louise's brother, Peter, which would last 20 years until Clayton died last year of cancer.But the Crawfords' time in Murupara was about to run out. Jim Crawford was made redundant and the family moved to Nelson in search of a new life. Before long, they were back in Rotorua.One evening in 1986, Nicholas was walking home from her job as a receptionist when Schollum, who had transferred to Rotorua, pulled up and offered her a lift. She alleges he took her to a police house where he, Rickards and Shipton pack-raped her and violated her with a baton.The 18-year-old recognised Rickards and Shipton, big men into body-building and partying."I protested vigorously about being in the room with them because I knew what was going to happen. I was saying, ' No, I don't want this, guys.'A fourth man she did not know, wearing a police shirt but mufti trousers, witnessed the attack, she says. The baton was put into her anus while she was made to perform oral sex."It was so painful. I remember saying, 'No more, no more,' and rolling away. I picked my clothes up off the floor and Schollum told me to go and have a shower, which I did."She cried as she was driven home and Schollum said, "I'm sorry, Lou," when she was dropped off at her nearby flat.A former colleague who knew Schollum, Rickards and Shipton at the time says they "were good guys but they were ladies' men, always going on about their conquests."They were out to play and play they did. They were typical guys as far as I could see. If they were given the chance they would take it and a lot of them were given the opportunity because girls seemed to go for guys in uniform."It was a sexist place to work, the colleague says. Partying and womanising by police was never questioned or frowned on.Another colleague: "They had a shocking reputation among everyone for stray rooting but I never heard of anyone making complaints or anything like rape. It was always consensual, willing stuff. They probably fancied themselves as studs.""Brad [Shipton] was a cowboy, very vain. He bulked up all of a sudden."Trevor Clayton was another well-known player. But it was Clayton, the former Murupara constable and family friend, to whom Nicholas would turn when she first complained in 1993 about the alleged Rotorua rape.Nicholas says she did not tell anyone about the incident at the time because "I felt no one would believe me because they were police officers".She says the baton rape was not the end of police sex offences against her. Only when she formed a relationship with her husband, Ross Nicholas, did police stop calling on her.

She and Ross, a milk tanker driver, married in 1988; she was 20, he was 23. They lived in Horohoro, just outside Rotorua. The next year the first of three children was born.For most of this time, she says, the abuse by police was too much for her to deal with and she blocked it from her memory. That didn't mean it wasn't there. It nagged at her and, in 1993, she decided it had to be dealt with."Every time I saw a police car or a uniform ... the hairs on the back of my neck would stand on end. That's how I've been. I've always had this fear."She suffered "horrendous nightmares because ... nobody believed me. I've left them buried for a very long time".She sought counselling from a sexual abuse counsellor, Margaret Craig, who found her accounts credible. "I have had people in the past in my office with these sorts of stories and I have felt that they've been somewhat shaky or there's been some concerns that I've had," Craig said. "But I never ever had any with Louise."It was also time for Nicholas to tell those she loved and was loved by. "As soon as I decided to deal with it, I decided to tell everyone."Her family have been fantastic, she says, not least Ross, who has been her rock.He told the Herald that friends who knew Nicholas' story would sometimes ask him why he'd stayed with someone with so many problems. It's because, he says, he believes her and believes in her.

Early in 1993, aged 25, Nicholas went to the Rotorua police station to lodge a formal complaint. But she says she was persuaded by then CIB chief John Dewar not to make a complaint in writing.Her allegations against the trio came to light only after the Police Complaints Authority was called in to investigate police handling of a previous rape complaint made against the police in the Bay of Plenty.Detective Inspector Rex Miller and other senior police were brought in to conduct a Police Complaints Authority investigation into Nicholas' claims.The PCA inquiry, whose existence was made public only this week, looked at whether Dewar had conspired to cover up the 1986 allegations but found he had not committed any criminal or disciplinary offence.The investigation discovered that Dewar had failed to record a formal statement of complaint from Nicholas. His failure to record and investigate the allegations showed a gross lack of judgment and competence, the inquiry found.Early in his investigation Miller spoke to former sergeant Ray Sutton, to whom Nicholas had repeated her allegation of rape by the three officers."Ray made notes in relation to his interview with Louise and mysteriously his notebook disappeared from his desk," he said.It was Miller who stood up to be counted this week after Nicholas went public. Now retired, he had kept his notebook of interviews with her "because I had some unease". He says he found her story compelling, but met a wall of silence from Rotorua police."I believed what she told us," he said. "But we had to go on what evidence was available and the corroboration was just not there."Miller, a man with a keen wit but a steely sense of purpose, said Nicholas was "moulded like play dough" into not making a complaint.He said that a month after he was given a statement from Nicholas, in which she said she was raped by the three officers, Dewar took another statement from her, in which she indicated the sex was consensual.Asked if he believed her, Miller said: "Well, I didn't believe the second statement."He said it was inappropriate for Dewar to have taken the statement at all. Nicholas' contradictory statement had brought her credibility into issue.Nicholas was also "poisoned" towards the PCA investigating team, which led to her making statements that "clouded her credibility"."I think she was very naive and easily manipulated, almost like play dough."She was able to be moulded how they wanted."It had also been unprofessional of Dewar to investigate close associates, he said.

By 1995, counsellor Margaret Craig had become so disturbed by Dewar's influence on her client that she wrote to police national headquarters outlining her concerns. She said Dewar was picking up Nicholas from her home and taking her to lunch before bringing her to counselling."That began to concern me because I knew she was very vulnerable."Craig says she received no reply for five months, after which she again approached national headquarters. From the reply, she concluded the police were "covering their backs".Dewar, now with the St John Ambulance in Hamilton, this week defended his handling of the allegations and sought legal advice."I spent a lot of time with Louise and dealt with her in an absolutely professional way," he told the Weekend Herald. "I was sympathetic and compassionate. I believed her and trusted in what she was saying to be the truth."He said he spent countless hours at Nicholas' home, going through the process the police would follow about her complaint, informing and briefing her and her parents."There was no coaxing, no persuasion. She made informed choices and had counselling. I liaised closely with her. If that is moulding then I am guilty of moulding ..."I did not mesmerise this girl over a period of 18 months. She knew and understood what her options were. What more can I say?"But in footage taken by a hidden camera and broadcast on One News, Dewar admitted to Nicholas he knew at least some of the physical contact between her and the three policemen was without her consent."I certainly knew that the part regarding the baton was not consensual. It would be hard to understand why you would consent to that."Yet he told the Sunday Star-Times Nicholas had to "take responsibility for what happened"."She said it was part of a different life. She never said anything about sexual offending in groups. She said she had a relationship with them separately."The impression I gained was she received a certain degree of satisfaction being present among police officers. They made her feel important, gave her mana. She seemed to relish the attention from these very important and powerful men. She said she was ashamed and embarrassed about what she allowed these men to do to her."He says he handled the investigation with the blessing of his district commander, the late Trevor Beatson, who took the matter to regional commander Assistant Commissioner Bruce Scott.It was agreed Dewar should handle the inquiry because of the serious nature of the allegations and because the detective constable in charge of the sexual abuse team would have been investigating a superior.

Nicholas says she originally believed Dewar had treated her fairly until she was shown various documents from the PCA investigation."I have since learned that the police officers he advised me not to make a written complaint about were friends and associates of Mr Dewar," she said in a statement.Some time after the investigation, Dewar was removed from his command at Rotorua police by the Deputy Commissioner of the time, Barry Matthews, who sent him to work in Auckland's police control room. He later left the police.Miller says the three accused policemen were counselled. This was the only discipline available because the investigation was outside its 12-month time limit under police regulations.Schollum and Shipton are no longer policemen. Shipton owns bars in Tauranga and Hamilton and is a colourful Tauranga District councillor. One of his establishments, the Mount Mellick, made headlines last year when it ran a dwarf-throwing contest, with punters tossing a vegetable oil-covered dwarf along a polythene sheet. Shipton, a strapping 120kg-plus figure, said at the time it was neither dangerous nor denigrating.Schollum appeared in the Herald in 1989 after rescuing two children caught in a rip at Mt Maunganui. He said afterwards the most fearful part was walking up the beach in his by then transparent underpants. "That gave some of the women in the crowd a few chuckles," he said.He became police prosecutor in Napier before leaving the force in the late 1990s. In 1999, he applied for a licence to sell used cars and now works at Stephen Hill Motors in Hastings.Miller says Rickards, the only one still in the force, admitted having sex with Nicholas with another person present, but denied raping her or using a baton on her."I know I laid it on the line to him loud and clear as to what my expectations of a police officer were. I didn't beat around the bush."It doesn't matter who's carrying it out. It's not professional behaviour and it's not the behaviour you condone from a young constable."Rickards, born and raised in Rotorua of the Tainui subtribe Ngati Hikairo, was no stranger to trouble. Petty crime as a teenager brought him into contact with the police but he knew he wanted to be one of them. He joined as an 18-year-old, too young to make arrests.A profile in the 1979 Trentham police college yearbook, written by classmates, lists rugby and beer as his pet loves. His ambition: commissioner. But the most likely outcome, his colleagues predicted, was: "Black Power leader in Rotorua.""Clint would tell anyone who would listen he was going to be the first Maori police commissioner," a veteran officer said this week. "And he would step on whatever toes he had to in order to get there."Another former colleague found him aggressive and controlling. "When he left Hamilton they all breathed a huge sigh of relief."A detective by 1983, Rickards spent four years in Rotorua and did a stint undercover. Transfers would later take him to Otahuhu, Hastings, Invercargill, Papakura and Hamilton.

When, in 1997, assistant commissioner Rob Robinson promoted Rickards to become the country's youngest police chief, in the Gisborne district, Rex Miller was dismayed."I told him he would regret the decision, that it wouldn't be wise because Rickards was carrying a bit of baggage. And he [Robinson] said, 'No, no, he'll be good, he'll be good."Two years on Robinson, then deputy commissioner, accepted Rickards' eventually successful application to head the Waikato district but played no further role in the appointment.But the rape allegations would come back to haunt Rickards in 2000, when he was vying for the job of deputy commissioner, a position requiring the Prime Minister's approval.After Robinson told Helen Clark about the allegations and investigation, she recommended Steve Long, the man appointed this week to reopen the police investigation of the complaints.Yet Robinson did not cast Rickards adrift. In 2001, by now commissioner, he promoted Rickards to assistant commissioner, bringing him to headquarters to run a troubleshooting support team for him.He then appointed Rickards head of the Auckland City police district, with overall responsibility for greater Auckland, a position he took up on January 1.Robinson said this week he did not believe "sexual proclivities" should necessarily come into employment decisions. After Helen Clark announced a commission of inquiry, he conceded his promotion of Rickards might form part of the inquiry.The Government's quick move to defuse any political fallout this week was in itself highly unusual. When on Sunday afternoon Herald political reporter Kevin Taylor contacted the Prime Minister's office about Rickards, it was Helen Clark who phoned back to explain why she had not recommended him for deputy commissioner.Two days later, as police reopened the criminal investigation and Rickards was stood down, Helen Clark ordered an independent commission of inquiry."The allegations are extremely serious and suggest a systematic cover-up of misbehaviour by the police," she said.The inquiry will look at the police handling of their investigations into Nicholas' claims and the "culture" within the police. It will look at other, possibly related claims which came out of the woodwork this week.

Kaitaia woman Judith Garrett alleges she was handcuffed and raped in the Kaitaia police station in 1988, when she was 44. Charges were never laid against the officer, Constable Tim Ogle.Garrett told the Herald: "He's been in Australia since he was more or less told to go in July 1988."And a Murupara woman, whose name is suppressed, is seeking compensation over the police handling of her 1982 rape complaint. The 38-year-old, twice raped by a shopkeeper when she was 16, received a formal apology from Robinson in 2000 after a damning report into police handling of her complaint.Amid these developments, more details emerged of Nicholas' story and of police culture at the time - from Miller, from Craig and from former Rotorua policewoman Carolyn Butcher, who was in the same squad as one of the three men. She told One News her baton went missing at a police party in the mid-1980s. When it was returned, she was told it had been used for sex.Then on Wednesday, Louise's brother Peter Crawford said former policeman Clayton had confessed on his deathbed that he was warned to keep quiet about the allegations. "He said, 'there's definitely been a cover-up', said Crawford. "He was definitely having trouble with it because he knew it was illegal."After 18 years, Nicholas could scarcely comprehend the developments this week. After the letdown of Miller's investigation, she had returned to the lifestyle block and "got on with life" with Ross, a milk tanker driver, and their three children, aged 14, 12 and 9.Her family knows everything, she says, and her children understand that things happened to their mum at the hands of policemen that should never have happened."We'd sort of put it away in a cupboard and got on with life but we thought, who knows, it may come out one day," she told the Herald.Louise and Ross Nicholas didn't crack open a bottle of champagne when the commission of inquiry and new criminal investigation were announced. They are rural people. They did have a beer as they took constant phone calls.Ross, who has stood by her throughout her journey, was elated for his wife. "I called it Louise Day. We need a public holiday."To Nicholas, it marked a change which she summed up with the words, "they can put away their brooms now". At last, she is being listened to.

Police told to keep mum about culture in the force

2004-02-06T03:17:00.000-08:00

Stuff
February 6, 2004
Police told to keep mum about culture in the force
NZPA

Police have been told to close ranks to media asking questions following historical rape allegations by Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas. Staff had been told not to talk about the culture in the force in the past, and police national headquarters general manager of public affairs Michael Player had sent staff a memo saying they should not respond to any media requests for information about what their working lives were like in past decades. Mr Player told staff not to speak about any of the issues raised by Mrs Nicholas' case, but particularly police culture.

The memo follows intense media interest in former police culture after Ms Nicholas alleged she had been pack raped by three police officers and violated with a baton in Rotorua in 1986, when she was 18. The three men involved, assistant commissioner and Auckland police commander Clint Rickards, Tauranga city councillor Brad Shipton and Napier car dealer Bob Schollum have vigorously denied the allegations. Mr Rickards has been stood down on full pay while the claims are investigated. Southern police boss Superintendent Nick Perry is to head the criminal investigation. He will lead a team of 13 police staff and will answer to deputy commissioner of operations Steve Long. Prime Minister Helen Clark has also announced a commission of inquiry will look at the claims and will also consider wider issues within the police force.

Further claims of rape by police officers surfaced yesterday following publicity about the allegations. An Auckland Sexual Abuse Help Foundation counsellor said she knew of four cases in the past 18 months of rape complaints against police that did not make it to court. Former Police Association secretary Bob Moodie said he also knew of another case involving a female police officer who did not pursue her claim of rape by a male colleague. "She wouldn't complain and the reason she wouldn't is because she had no confidence her complaint would ever be investigated," he said. Dr Moodie believed police culture had improved in recent years. "The attitude of young males towards women was different. We were like young bulls in a paddock." Police Association president Greg O'Connor agreed the culture had changed and said there was greater accountability.

'Slipups' abort previous trials against police officer on sex charges

2004-02-06T03:08:00.000-08:00

NZ Herald
February 6, 2004
'Slipups' abort previous trials against police officer on sex charges
by James Gardiner

A series of Rotorua court cases nine years ago gives a clear idea of the type of concerns Prime Minister Helen Clark had in mind when she spoke of the need for the commission of inquiry to look at the culture of the police. A former police officer was tried three times on charges of indecent assault and sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old girl living with him as a member of his family and under his care and protection. The first two trials were aborted after the detective in charge of the case introduced inadmissible evidence. The man was acquitted at the third trial. During these trials it emerged that the complainant had also made sex allegations against serving police officers but the detective had failed to make a written record of her complaint and advised her not to make a statement. Two of the judges severely criticised him for this. At the second trial, Judge Philip Evans said his failure to record the allegations was "remarkable ... in view of the background of such a large number of police officers being implicated and in my view shows a lack of judgment on his part". In a ruling on costs after the third trial, Judge Michael Lance went further: "I am of the view the failure to record details of these allegations was not only 'remarkable' it was utterly incredible. "During his interview with the complainant he is told of allegations of potentially serious sexual offending by ... currently serving police officers. "Such disclosures should have triggered alarm bells that would have permanently silenced Big Ben no matter how vague in terms of time and event or place. "Even more surprising than the failure to record is the officer's deliberate advice to the complainant not to make a statement about her allegations against these officers." Judge Lance said the fact that a non-serving police officer was pursued with vigour while allegations against serving officers went unrecorded leant weight to the defence argument that the accused man was "a sacrificial offering". He awarded the acquitted man more than $20,000 in costs. Because of a suppression order the name of the detective, as well as the names of the accused and the complainant, cannot be published. The decision records that the first trial was aborted after the detective said in evidence that a fellow officer and former colleague of the accused had told him he was prepared to lie to protect the man because he did not believe he was guilty. That was seen as unfairly discrediting a potential character witness for the defence and, by association, the defendant. The second trial, before Judge Evans, was aborted after the same detective said in evidence that several other officers had admitted to him that they had had sex with the complainant. The judge said the experienced detective had placed this "clearly hearsay evidence before the court during the course of what I must describe as measured and carefully delivered evidence in circumstances where there are accusations against a number of police officers of a serious nature".

At each trial the judges expressed concern about how and why an experienced and high-ranking police officer could make such blunders in giving evidence. When he aborted the second trial, Judge Evans noted it was the second time the same officer had done a similar thing at a similar point. "That leaves a question mark as to the motive of the officer which should no doubt be examined by the appropriate authority," he said. He was not the only person in court puzzled by what was behind the officer's actions. The Herald has obtained copies of statutory declarations prepared and signed at the time by a senior Rotorua solicitor not involved in the case. The solicitor, who asked not to be identified, said he was sitting in the back of the court after the defence raised its objection to what the officer in charge of the case had said. He was aware the previous trial had been abandoned in similar circumstances. According to him, after the judge left the police officer walked to the back of the courtroom "grinning and looking pleased" and said to the complainant and her family, "You know what's going to happen now - just what we discussed". The solicitor says he then overheard the officer outside the courtroom, saying words to the effect that "it was a bit of a gamble".

Judge Lance did not agree with the Crown's assertion that it would be wrong to infer the actions of the officer in charge were "a stupid and fundamental error" rather than deliberate. "I am of the view it was a willed and conscious act calculated to embarrass and frustrate the accused's defence," he said. "It most certainly had that effect. Twice." The case sparked an internal police inquiry and an investigation by the Police Complaints Authority. Although the police officer was found to have failed in his duties and had acted unprofessionally, allegations that he deliberately misled the court and was malicious in his prosecution of the former policeman were not considered proven. Documents obtained by the Herald show police chiefs and judges lost confidence in the officer but he did not lose his rank and was transferred to an administrative post in another city.

More rape claims against police officers emerge

2004-02-05T03:04:00.000-08:00

Stuff
February 5, 2004
More rape claims against police officers emerge
NZPA

Further claims of rape by police officers were surfacing today following the Government's decision to order a commission of inquiry into the handling of pack-rape allegations. National Radio reported that an Auckland Sexual Abuse Help Foundation counsellor knew of four cases in the past 18 months of rape complaints against police that did not make it to court. Counsellor Caroline Day said at least one woman was persuaded by police that her claim would not stand up in court. "It's a harrowing court system to put anyone through," she said. "My understanding is that, on at least one occasion, there has been a bit of dissuasion about taking this case forward, as in police advising, 'Look, this isn't going to stand up'."

Former Police Association secretary Bob Moodie said he knew of another case involving a female police officer who did not pursue her claim of rape by a male colleague. The reason was that she had no confidence in any subsequent investigation. "I know of a case where a woman police officer was raped by a CIB officer," Dr Moodie told National Radio. "She never complained. She couldn't complain. She wouldn't complain and the reason she wouldn't is because she had no confidence her complaint would ever be investigated and she knew that she would be a greater casualty and a bigger victim of the situation than she actually was."

Prime Minister Helen Clark announced the commission of inquiry on Tuesday after claims that Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas was pack-raped by three police officers in 1986 when she was 18. All three have strenuously denied the allegations. One of the three, Auckland City district head Assistant Commissioner Clint Rickards, was stood down on full pay as a criminal investigation was reopened. The commission will also consider wider issues within the police force. Miss Clark said yesterday that another case of alleged rape, in Northland 16 years ago, was the "final straw" when she considered the Government's response to Mrs Nicholas' claims. Details of Judith Garrett's case were sent to Miss Clark after Mrs Nicholas' allegations were made public at the weekend. "Believe me, what was sent to me... my hair stood on end," she said. Miss Clark said the two cases raised questions about the culture within the police and the conduct of individual officers and whether the course of justice had been perverted. "The question which is on everyone's mind is what were the prevailing standards of police behaviour where group sex with relatively young women was not considered a matter of concern to the employer?"

Mrs Garrett, 60, is also calling for police to re-open a criminal investigation into her complaint that a Kaitaia constable handcuffed and raped her in the town's police station in March 1988. The officer admitted having sex with her, but said it was consensual. In 1994, Mrs Garrett took a private prosecution against the Attorney-General, alleging a police cover-up. Despite finding that the initial investigation had not been carried out properly, a High Court jury at Whangarei ruled against her on the basis that the investigating officer had not been motivated by malice. Mrs Garrett said she was shocked by the similarities between her experience and that of Mrs Nicholas. "I feel that the public have absolutely no idea of what happens within the police force and they should be informed." Police national headquarters spokesman Jon Neilson said historical cases relevant to that of Mrs Nicholas, including Ms Garrett's, would be reviewed as part of a reopened criminal investigation into Mrs Nicholas' allegations. Deputy Commissioner Steve Long would make decisions about any matters that appeared to warrant future action, Mr Neilson said.

Another rape claim 'the final straw' - PM

2004-02-05T02:58:00.000-08:00

Dominion Post
February 5, 2004
Another rape claim 'the final straw' - PM
by Nick Venter, Kelly Andrew and Gordon Jon Thompson

Another alleged rape by a police officer was a key factor in the Government's decision to order an independent inquiry into the alleged pack rape of Louise Nicholas. Prime Minister Helen Clark said Judith Garrett's case was the "final straw" when she considered the Government's response to Mrs Nicholas' claim that she was raped by three policemen in Rotorua in 1986. Details of Mrs Garrett's case were sent to Miss Clark after The Dominion Post reported Mrs Nicholas' allegations. The prime minister said the information clinched her decision to set up a commission of inquiry to investigate not just the handling of Mrs Nicholas' case but wider issues within the police force. "Believe me, what was sent to me ... my hair stood on end," she said yesterday.

Mrs Garrett, 60, alleges that a Kaitaia constable handcuffed and raped her in the town's police station in March 1988 and that the police failed to properly investigate her complaint. In 1994 she took a private prosecution against the attorney-general, alleging a police cover-up. But, despite finding that the initial investigation had not been carried out properly, a jury in the High Court at Whangarei ruled against her on the basis that the investigating officer had not been motivated by malice.

Miss Clark said the allegations of Mrs Nicholas and Mrs Garrett raised questions about the culture within the police as well as the conduct of individual officers and whether the course of justice had been perverted. "The question which is on everyone's mind is what were the prevailing standards of police behaviour where group sex with relatively young women was not considered a matter of concern to the employer?" The Kaitaia documents had been forwarded to the Crown Law Office which is drafting the terms of reference for the inquiry. Logically, the inquiry would include some consideration of Mrs Garrett's case, Miss Clark said. Mrs Garrett said she was shocked by the similarities between her experience and that of Mrs Nicholas. "I feel that the public have absolutely no idea of what happens within the police force and they should be informed."

Mrs Garrett said her alleged assailant was dismissed from the police for disgraceful conduct in 1988 but was never charged with rape because one of his colleagues – who had been drinking with him on the night of the alleged incident – mishandled the initial investigation. He did not formally report her complaint to his superiors for three months and failed to follow correct procedures. He was later charged under police regulations for his after-hours drinking and neglect of duty but he retired before the charges could be heard. "He didn't take any notes and he didn't ask me to make a statement. He just asked me what happened and who I had told about it," Mrs Garrett said. She had been at the Awanui Hotel waiting for her partner to finish work when she was introduced to her alleged attacker. He was drinking there with another officer and asked her for a lift home. On the way, he asked her to stop at the police station so he could pick up some running gear. He told her one of her car headlights was not working and, while she was checking it, handcuffed her. Frightened, she demanded he let her go and he said they would have to go inside the station for the key. He allegedly raped her in a locked office. "I couldn't believe he'd rape me – he was much younger than me," Mrs Garrett said. She struggled and bit the officer on the arm, and deliberately left evidence such as fingerprints and strands of hair. Police spokesman Jon Neilson said police were looking at Mrs Garrett's file. Hers was the only other historical rape complaint since Mrs Nicholas' claims became public.

Former policeman said to have made deathbed confession

2004-02-04T02:52:00.000-08:00

The Herald
February 4, 2004
Former policeman said to have made deathbed confession
NZPA

A former policeman made a deathbed confession saying he was warned to keep quiet about rape claims made by Louise Nicholas, the Dominion Post reported today. The newspaper said a friend of the policeman, Louise Nicholas' brother Peter Crawford, said that the week before former Rotorua policeman Trevor Clayton died last year, Mr Clayton broke down and said he wanted to ask for forgiveness from Mrs Nicholas and her family. Mrs Nicholas alleges she was violated with a police baton and pack-raped by three police officers, Clint Rickards, Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton, when all were Rotorua police in 1986. She says that Mr Rickards and Mr Shipton continued on occasions to have sex with her against her will. All three strenuously deny the allegations. Mrs Nicholas said she asked Mr Clayton, whom she knew through her family, to try to make his fellow officers stop, the Dominion Post reported. Mr Clayton was integral to the original police investigation of the case, the newspaper said. Yesterday that investigation was reopened by police, at the same time as the Government announced a commission of inquiry into the matters.

The man who assigned himself to investigate the original allegations, former head of Rotorua CIB John Dewar, said in a police document obtained by The Dominion Post that Mr Clayton told him Mrs Nicholas had complained to him about what some Rotorua policemen were doing to her. In the document, Mr Dewar is alleged to have said that Mr Clayton said there could have been criminal implications to Mrs Nicholas' complaints. He said Mr Clayton had said he was prepared to lie on oath to "protect his mates" if asked about Mrs Nicholas in court. But Mr Crawford told The Dominion Post that, as Mr Clayton lay dying, he wanted to come clean about what he knew. Mr Crawford said he became "best mates" with Mr Clayton during a 20-year friendship.

Mr Clayton had been a groomsman at his wedding. Mr Crawford said he knew his sister made allegations that police officers in Rotorua had sexually assaulted her in the mid to late 80s. Because of their divided loyalties, Mr Crawford and Mr Clayton did not discuss the allegations in great detail until a few days before Mr Clayton died. Mr Crawford said that Mr Clayton's partner telephoned him saying Mr Clayton wanted to see him. "Trevor was gravely ill. Everybody that had anything to do with Trevor knew he didn't have long to go. He had cancer ... I shot round there to visit him and we sat down and caught up on some old times and then he quite suddenly got quite emotional," he told The Dominion Post. "I felt he wanted to get something off his chest with me. He broke down and held my hand and basically he wanted to come clean with the issues regarding my sister. "He asked me for forgiveness and Mum and Dad's forgiveness and Louise's forgiveness ... like I say, he wanted to come clean on the whole deal but he told me he was gagged, that he was told to shut up and it was quite emotional for him. "It was one of the hardest things I've had to listen to ... and he never actually got that chance in the end. He passed away approximately a week later." The Dominion Post: "There was no doubt what he was telling you was that these police officers had acted unlawfully in the way they treated Louise?" Mr Crawford: "Definitely, yes ... I think, with Trevor being out of the police force, his relationship with his mates in the police force became strained over the issue. "He certainly wanted to clear, have it all out in the open and have it cleared up and he was definitely gagged. Threatened maybe. "He said, 'There's definitely been a cover-up' ... he was definitely having trouble coping with it because he knew it was illegal."

Mr Crawford said that, though it was difficult knowing that Mr Clayton had known things about his sister, he remained his friend because he had tried to make clear his conscience. "Yeah, we were, we were mates." Mrs Nicholas said she had forgiven Mr Clayton. Mr Dewar said yesterday that he had fully investigated Mrs Nicholas' complaints and welcomed any inquiry into his actions. Mr Dewar has been accused of manipulating Mrs Nicholas in order to protect his colleagues. However, in a brief statement yesterday, he denied all allegations of wrongdoing and said he had not compromised his inquiry into Mrs Nicholas' complaints. He would co-operate fully with any inquiry and looked forward to being exonerated.

Second woman's anguish

2004-02-04T02:47:00.000-08:00

The NZ Herald
February 4, 2004
Second woman's anguish
by Eleanor Black

A second woman whose rape complaint was bungled by police has spoken out about police treatment. The woman, whose 1982 rape complaint was handled in what a police investigator later agreed was a "woefully inadequate" manner, used to live close to Louise Nicholas, whose pack-rape complaint has sparked a commission of inquiry. The woman, whose name has been suppressed, was given a police apology for the way she was treated but she wants compensation.

The 38-year-old was twice raped by a shopkeeper in 1982 when she was 16. She reported the rapes to Murupara police - who were friendly with the rapist - but they did not follow up her complaint. Mrs Nicholas alleges three policemen pack-raped her in a Rotorua police house in 1986. The second woman remembers hearing about the incident. "She was a good girl," she said of Mrs Nicholas. "She had real strict parents." Police Commissioner Rob Robinson formally apologised to the unnamed woman in 2000 following a damning 1996 report by Rotorua Detective Inspector Graham Bell (now retired) into the police handling of her rape complaint. Mr Bell said in the report that a formal apology for the "woefully inadequate" police response was the "very least that should be done for the complainant".
His report found:

* The police service in Murupara in the early 1980s was "inadequate and superficial".
* The police were reluctant to accept that there had been any wrongdoing on the part of the rapist.
* The police officer to whom she complained, Constable Trevor Clayton, asked the rapist and his wife to come to the police station, in an attempt to deal with the matter quickly, which Mr Bell described as "inappropriate".
* The lack of police action at the time had "a compound effect" on the victim.

Mr Bell concluded: "It would appear she was treated as a second-class citizen and her rights were trampled by an uncaring, uncommitted and lackadaisical police officer with little interest in his job. "There is no question that the police response to her reporting the incident was woefully inadequate to the point of being a gross neglect of duty on the part of former Constable Trevor Clayton." Mr Clayton resigned in 1989 under the Police Employment Rehabilitation Fund scheme for officers with psychological or physical impairment. The woman wants to sue the police for exemplary damages and loss of earnings. Since the rapes, she has suffered health problems which prevent her from working. Her advocate, Phillipa Cunningham, says that a year ago she tried on behalf of the woman to get a $320,000 out-of-court settlement from the police. The police refused. The woman, who now lives in Auckland, told the Herald she is $120,000 in debt for personal loans, is depressed and stressed. "I have been breaking," she said, "but I've got to learn I've got to focus."

Rape-accused policeman served in city

2004-02-03T16:11:00.000-08:00

The Evening Standard
February 3, 2004
Rape-accused policeman served in city
by Don Kavanagh

Two of the policemen involved in the Louise Nicholas rape inquiry were colleagues in Palmerston North in the late 1970s and had a reputation for womanising. Bob Schollum and Trevor Clayton were colleagues and friends in the city during that time and subsequently teamed up again in Taneatua, in the Bay of Plenty, and Rotorua, the Manawatu Standard has been told. Police Commissioner Rob Robinson was also stationed at Palmerston North at the same time as Mr Schollum and Mr Clayton.

Mr Schollum, along with Assistant Commissioner Clint Rickards and former police officer Brad Shipton, is accused of being involved in the gang rape of Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas in 1986.

Mr Schollum allegedly violated the woman with a police baton. Mrs Nicholas said the men frequently had sex with her against her will. Mr Schollum subsequently left the police and became a car salesman. Mr Shipton, who has also resigned from the police, is now a Tauranga city councillor.

Mr Clayton, who died last year, has been described by Mrs Nicholas as a family friend whom she confided in, in the hope that he could convince his police friends to leave her alone. According to a news story at the weekend, Mr Clayton admitted that he had done nothing about the allegations and would lie to protect his mates. The details were recorded in an interview made during an investigation into Mrs Nicholas' complaints in 1980s.

A source told the Standard yesterday that Mr Clayton and Mr Schollum, along with a third officer, were close mates. "They were like the Three Musketeers," the source said. "They were renowned for it (womanising) and everyone knew about them. But it's a bit unfair to compare things back then with how things are today. Things were different. "There were women who were particularly attracted to men in uniform, so there was plenty of scope." The third officer, who also left the police and became a nurse, was investigated in Taneatua in the early 1980s over a sexual violation, but the charges were dropped.

Police cover-up allegation

2004-02-02T02:34:00.000-08:00

NZ Herald
February 2, 2004
Police cover-up allegation:

Inquiry tainted says probe head Rex Miller, the former top officer who did the Police Complaints Authority inquiry into the handling of the rape allegations, says police chiefs should have known years ago that his inquiry was compromised. Police Superintendent Rob Robinson has said a full inquiry was warranted because of new information that Mr Miller's review might have been compromised. The three police officers accused of gang rape deny the allegation and say it was fully and properly investigated in the 1990s.

Police Minister George Hawkins said he had previously been advised of the allegations and had been assured they had been investigated and there was no substance to them. Mr Miller told the Herald that his investigation was compromised because of interference by John Dewar, who was head of Rotorua CIB. Among allegations published at the weekend is that Mr Dewar did not properly investigate Mrs Nicholas' allegations because he was covering for the police officers. Mr Miller said Mrs Nicholas "was moulded like play dough" into not making a complaint and because of Mr Dewar's influence did not co-operate with his inquiry into Mr Dewar's handling of her allegations.

Mr Miller, who was a detective chief inspector based in Hamilton, believes he made it clear in his report that his inquiry was hamstrung by Mr Dewar's behaviour. "We couldn't thoroughly investigate it because we had all these obstacles thrown in front of us. I felt we didn't get anywhere," Mr Miller said. "I haven't got a copy of my report so I don't know how I worded it but they [the police hierarchy] knew." Although his brief was to investigate Mr Dewar's handling of Mrs Nicholas' allegations rather than her allegations themselves, Mr Miller said he was left with serious misgivings. "Did I have a bad feeling at the end of it? I've kept my notebook, with the whole [outline of the] inquiry in it. It's the only one I've ever kept," said Mr Miller, who retired in March 2000. "We always thought it had happened. We always thought something had taken place that was untoward." Investigating the allegations should have been passed to someone from another police district, Mr Miller said. "If it is someone you know personally, a workmate, you disqualify yourself from the investigation. That's the normal practice."

Mr Dewar earlier claimed that he had kept the Bay of Plenty district commander of the time, Trevor Beatson, fully informed. "But I briefed Trevor about my inquiry and he wasn't aware of the full extent of the matter," Mr Miller said. Mr Beatson has since died. As a result of Mr Miller's inquiry, the three officers were "counselled" about their behaviour. "I counselled them, Rickards, Shipton and Schollum, and I filed a report about it. That goes on their internal police file. If it's not there, it should be," Mr Miller said. He understood Mr Dewar had received a written reprimand from the complaints authority. Mr Miller was confident the inquiry now being set up could do a good job, despite past police failures on the matter

Nicholas inquiry may look at other cases

2004-02-02T02:28:00.000-08:00

NZ Herald
February 2, 2004
Nicholas inquiry may look at other cases
by Patrick Gower

Police may widen their investigation into the Louise Nicholas allegations to include other mishandled sex complaints in the same district at the same time. Commissioner Rob Robinson last night confirmed he was aware of the two other cases in the Bay of Plenty about the same time as Louise Nicholas' claims there was a cover-up of police allegedly pack-raping her. He was responding to Herald inquiries which found:

* A police investigation was ordered into the conduct of an experienced police officer who gave evidence in two sex trials which collapsed in the Rotorua District Court. After a man was acquitted of sexual impropriety in a third trial, the judge was scathing of the officer's conduct and awarded the defendant $20,000 costs for going through three trials.

* In 2000, Mr Robinson issued a formal apology to a 35-year-old woman who had complained to Murupara police that she was brutally raped in the early 1980s and whose case was badly mishandled.

There are parallels between the latter case and that of Mrs Nicholas, who has claimed that she was pack-raped as a teenager by three officers in a Rotorua police house about 1986. Both women lived in Murupara around the time and both have battled to get police to respond. Mr Robinson said the cases could be looked into as part of the internal inquiry he ordered into Mrs Nicholas' allegations being led by Deputy Commissioner Steve Long. "My first tasking for Mr Long is to focus on Mrs Nicholas' complaints. And indeed, wherever that takes us there may be the indication of a need for a wider review. "It is something that may emerge sooner rather than later. I'm not sure." National Party police spokesman Tony Ryall said last night that any inquiry should be broadened in light of the other cases. "There has been a large number of matters raised and we need to see if they are relevant to the inquiry."

Detective Inspector Graham Bell investigated the case of the Murupara woman, whose name has been suppressed, after she complained that no one looked into her allegations against a local shopkeeper until, some years later, he was charged with other rapes. Now retired and presenting the television show Police 10-7, Mr Bell told the Herald he had been concerned by what he learned of the Murupara police. "I got the impression there was an unhealthy culture among the police who were stationed at Murupara at that time." Mr Bell also wanted it known that he was not the police officer criticised in the court case.

ONE News investigation has revealed key information that the police are unaware of

2004-02-01T02:16:00.000-08:00

One News
February 1, 2004
New information comes to light
A ONE News investigation has revealed key information that the police are unaware of.

For the first time, Nicholas' claims that she was sexually assaulted with a police baton in 1986 appear to have been strengthened.A former Rotorua policewoman has told ONE News that her police baton was used for "deviant sexual behaviour"."It was given to me with the explanation that it had been used for sex," Carolyn Butcher told ONE News."I am disgusted... that there is a possibility that someone could have used my baton in that way."Butcher says she lost her baton at a police party in Rotorua in the mid-1980s.One of the men named by Nicholas was in the same police squad as Butcher and it is believed he was at that party.Butcher would not say at this stage who gave her baton back some time later.When asked if she had informed other police officers of the possibility that her baton had been used for deviant sexual behaviour, Butcher replied that she had told "plenty of people, yes".

The former policeman who headed an internal investigation into the way the then-Rotorua CIB chief handled the rape allegations told ONE News that the investigators did not know about Butcher's baton going missing - nor what she was told when it was returned.Former Detective Chief Inspector Rex Miller said the men denied the baton incident but confirmed they had sexual intercourse with Nicholas.Nicholas says she was raped and sexually abused in about 1986 by the three Rotorua policemen. Seven years later she made a rape complaint to Rotorua police.It was investigated by Rotorua CIB head, Detective Inspector John Dewar, but no charges followed against the three men.

In 1995 the Police Complaints Authority assigned Miller to review Dewar's investigation.His report concluded that Dewar did not commit any criminal or disciplinary offence but he showed a "gross lack of judgement and competence and failed to record and investigate Louise Nicholas' allegations against the three officers".Dewar did not want to be interviewed by ONE News but said that he welcomed any new inquiry and would fully cooperate.Rickards said in a statement that he too would cooperate fully and that he expected to return to normal duty after his voluntary three weeks' leave.

Victim's behaviour 'typical'

2004-01-31T02:03:00.000-08:00

The Dominion Post
January 31, 2004
Victim's behaviour 'typical'
by Philip Kitchin

The behaviour of a Rotorua teenager who alleged that she was repeatedly raped by two police officers but did not run for help was typical of young sexual abuse victims, an expert says. Sexual abuse counsellor Margaret Craig agreed to speak of her assessment of Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas -- who made the rape allegations -- after being given permission by Mrs Nicholas to comment. Mrs Nicholas was referred for counselling when she was 26, after telling her doctor and family about the alleged rapes. She alleges she was raped at her flat several times by Clint Rickards, now police assistant commissioner, and Tauranga city councillor Brad Shipton when she was aged about 18. The two men would come to her flat uninvited and insist on having "two-on-one" sex with her, ignoring her objections, she alleges. She also says that Mr Rickards, Mr Shipton and Napier car dealer Bob Schollum pack-raped her in a police house on one occasion in about 1986, also using a police baton to abuse her. All three were police officers in Rotorua at the time of the alleged incidents.

Mrs Craig, who has an academic background in psychology and social work, said Mrs Nicholas' failure to scream or run away was typical of a young person, "in fact a young teenager, who had lived in a small community (Rotorua) and been victimised by persons who she was supposed to trust and the fact that these people had a very prominent position. "Once a person has been victimised they begin to doubt themselves . . . she would have been lacking in confidence, completely [lacking] really, having experienced what she described to me." It was well established in psychological literature that sexual abuse victims found they did not have the confidence to move. "They are frightened," she said. "They are worried about what people will say …. I don't see the fact that she didn't run or tell anybody as odd at all. It's a pretty typical response, and especially for a young teenager." Mrs Craig said Mrs Nicholas had "stood out" as a young person who had a lot of courage and yet wasn't sure she was doing the right thing. "But as the process of disclosure and investigation evolved, I imagine she began to see the absolute injustice of her situation. That it didn't matter who she told. Nobody seemed to want to listen. "We are not talking about a church leader or a school teacher. We are talking about the New Zealand police force and there isn't anywhere else that I know of that you can go, other than the ombudsman or someone like that, if you have a complaint of that nature. "I think she felt - she must have felt - completely let down by the system, the investigative system that the police instituted in her case."

Policeman admitted protecting his mates

2004-01-31T01:55:00.000-08:00

The Dominion Post
January 31, 2004
Policeman admitted protecting his mates

A police officer who received a complaint from a woman that she had been raped by other officers said he did nothing about it in order to protect his colleagues, a police document shows. The Dominion Post has obtained a job sheet written by former Rotorua CIB chief John Dewar, outlining a secretly taped interview with former police officer Trevor Clayton, who had by then left the police. The job sheet related to another matter being investigated, but it says that, when Mr Clayton was a Rotorua policeman in late 1986 or 1987, Lousie Nicholas complained to him about what some policemen were doing to her. Mr Dewar says in his job sheet: "I asked him if there were criminal implications and he said there could have been. "I asked him what he did about it as a serving member of the police and he said that he took no action. "I asked him why and he said to protect his mates." Mr Dewar claimed Mr Clayton said he would be prepared to lie in court about Mrs Nicholas. Mr Dewar said to Mr Clayton: "Well . . . I expected this reaction, particularly from an ex-member of the police. Would it surprise you to learn that I have a tape recorder in my jacket? "He replied, `Oh shit, thanks very much . . . thanks very much.' " Mr Dewar criticised Mr Clayton during the interview for not acting on serious allegations against serving police officers. But Mr Dewar appears to have been playing a double game. At the time of the interview he had advised Mrs Nicholas not to make a written complaint.

Another police document obtained by The Dominion Post makes Mr Dewar's investigation look even more peculiar. That document shows that the day before secretly taping Mr Clayton, Mr Dewar interviewed one of the accused, Bob Schollum, who was then a serving policeman. Nothing in the document indicates that Mr Dewar asked Mr Schollum if he had ever had sex with the woman making the allegations. When she was first spoken to by The Dominion Post last year, Mrs Nicholas still believed Mr Dewar had done everything he could to investigate her complaints. But a former Rotorua sexual abuse counsellor, Margaret Craig, was so worried about the "unprofessional" relationship she saw Mr Dewar developing with Mrs Nicholas at the time she was counselling her in the 1990s that she wrote to the then head of Rotorua police, former assistant commissioner Bruce Scott. Mrs Craig said she also raised her concerns with Mr Dewar after she learned he had been taking Mrs Nicholas out for meals before bringing her to counselling sessions. Mrs Nicholas admits now that she was hostile and reluctant to cooperate with police investigating how her earlier allegations were handled by Mr Dewar. She had thought he was her friend. Such was her loyalty that she kept him ahead of the investigation by acting as an informant, telling Mr Dewar what the investigators had asked her.

Police documents say there was "no doubt" Mr Dewar was aware the group rape allegation should have been properly documented and investigated. The "unprofessional" statement Mr Dewar obtained from Mrs Nicholas says she did not tell him about the alleged rape, after he first told her she did not need to tell him about "embarrassing" sex she had as a consenting adult. In making that statement, Mrs Nicholas now realises she compromised the police investigation into Mr Dewar's handling of her allegations because she had fudged the issue of consent. The statement is an extraordinary document. It is written in language that appears more like the way Mr Dewar speaks than the way Mrs Nicholas speaks. Police documents described the statement as an attempt by Mr Dewar to vindicate his actions, or his failure to investigate the allegations. The documents say it was unprofessional, offensive and showed a lack of judgment. After seeing other police documents, Mrs Nicholas now says the statement reinforces her belief that Mr Dewar was involved in a conspiracy to keep her allegations out of court.

Woman accuses top officer of teen pack-rape

2004-01-31T01:47:00.000-08:00

The Dominion Post
January 31, 2004
Woman accuses top officer of teen pack-rape
by Philip Kitchin

The man being groomed to be New Zealand's next police commissioner, a Tauranga city councillor and a Napier used car salesman have been accused of pack-raping a teenage girl when they all served as police in Rotorua. Auckland's senior policeman, Assistant Commissioner Clint Rickards, councillor Brad Shipton and salesman Bob Schollum are alleged to have raped the teenager and violated her with a police baton in about 1986. The woman making the allegations, Louise Nicholas, says she sought help at the time of the incidents, but was ignored. In 1993 she went to Rotorua police station intending to make a formal complaint, but was advised by then CIB chief Detective Inspector John Dewar not to make a written complaint. Now she believes he manipulated her in order to protect his police colleagues. She says that after the pack rape, Mr Rickards and Mr Shipton would from time to time arrive at her home uninvited, and always demand sex. Two years after she complained to Mr Dewar, then Detective Chief Inspector Rex Miller and other senior police were brought in by the Police Complaints Authority to conduct an investigation. Their inquiry, though thorough, was stymied because Mrs Nicholas, who then believed Mr Dewar had been sympathetic to her, did not want him criticised, and protected him.

The PCA inquiry, whose existence has never before been made public, looked at whether Mr Dewar conspired to cover up the allegations, but found that he had not committed any criminal or disciplinary offence. But his failure to record and investigate the allegations showed a gross lack of judgment and competence, the inquiry found. Now, nine years after that investigation, Mr Miller has spoken out, saying Mrs Nicholas was "moulded like play dough" into not making a complaint. After seeing police documents obtained by The Dominion Post, Mrs Nicholas, now 36, believes Mr Dewar, who lives in Hamilton and is no longer a police officer, played her "like a puppet". She wants Parliament to order an independent inquiry, saying she no longer trusts the police to investigate the matter.

Reliable police sources say Mr Rickards is expected to replace Police Commissioner Rob Robinson when he retires. In a statement issued last night in response to questions from The Dominion Post, Mr Robinson said police would study what was published. "Should matters be disclosed which materially call into question the integrity of police members' actions or investigations, then I give my assurance that these matters will be thoroughly looked at." A two-year investigation by The Dominion Post has revealed that police did not follow usual rape complaint procedures. The newspaper's investigation reveals:
· Mr Dewar appointed himself investigator even though he had close associations with Mr Rickards and Mr Shipton.
· Mr Rickards, Mr Shipton and Mr Schollum admitted having sex with the complainant when she was about 18; however, they said it was consensual. They denied her claim that a baton was used.
· The three were disciplined by "counselling" -- effectively a telling-off -- after the PCA inquiry.
· A senior sergeant's notebook recording some of the first written details of the rape allegations disappeared.
· When he learned of the accusations, Mr Shipton asked Mr Dewar to take over the investigation from a female detective.
· Mr Dewar's diary -- the only record of an unusual formal police interview he had with Mr Shipton -- was lost.
· The three men were "evasive" when asked by police to name a fourth man whom Mrs Nicholas says was a witness to the alleged pack-rape.
· The PCA inquiry into Mr Dewar's failure to act said he was arrogant and displayed a gross lack of judgment and competence.
· The inquiry found that he acted unprofessionally and offensively by taking a statement from Mrs Nicholas when he was himself being investigated for failing to act on her complaint.
· The house in which Mrs Nicholas alleges she was pack-raped was owned by the police department, and occupied by Mr Shipton, at the time of the alleged offence.

Mr Rickards, Mr Schollum and Mr Shipton declined to be interviewed by The Dominion Post but, in statements released on their behalf by their lawyer, each vehemently denies Mrs Nicholas' allegations. Mr Rickards said a full police investigation had cleared him of any wrongdoing and any publication of the allegations would "inevitably cause great harm and distress to my family and me". Mr Schollum said that he, too, had been subject to a thorough investigation and was completely cleared. "Her allegations have absolutely no foundation." Mr Shipton said he had been cleared of all allegations. "I denied the allegations absolutely then, and I deny them absolutely now."