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Allegations of Abuse
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Dame
Margaret Bazley and High Court judge, Bruce Robertson will conduct Commission
of Inquiry into police rape allegations The
Government is promising a thorough Commission of Inquiry into rape
allegations against the police. It
has announced retired public servant Dame Margaret Bazley and High Court
judge Bruce Robertson will conduct the inquiry, which Prime Minister Helen
Clark says will take until at least November. Miss
Clark is urging any other people with similar allegations to come forward
immediately so that their claims can be considered by the inquiry. She
expects the investigation to be totally transparent and says it will be held
in public, as the wine box inquiry was. The
commission was ordered after Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas claimed that
police officers sexually assaulted her between 1980 and 1986 when she was a
teenager. She alleges a subsequent police investigation, by former Rotorua
CIB boss John Dewar, was mishandled. One
of the officers at the centre of the allegations, Assistant Commissioner
Clint Rickards, has been stood down from his post, for allegedly pack-raping
Ms Nicholas in 1986. Kelvin Powell, Waikato District Police Commander, is
also implicated in Ms Nicholas' complaints. Another
woman has also accused Mr Dewar of taking part in group sex with Brad
Shipton, who has been named in Mrs Nicholas' complaint. In
addition, allegations have been made by Judith Garrett, who alleged that she
was raped in 1988 by a constable at the Kaitaia police station. Her private
prosecution was unsuccessful. The
police have opened a criminal inquiry into the allegations stemming from Mrs
Nicholas, and the Police Complaints Authority is investigating. |
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