|
|
Allegations
of Sexual Abuse in NZ |
|
A Niki Koster, 38,
decided to go to police to complain after Louise Nicholas went public in
January with allegations she was pack-raped and violated with a baton by
three police officers in Rotorua in 1986. Nicholas accused
Assistant Commissioner Clint Rickards, and two men who have since left the
police -- former Tauranga city councillor Brad Shipton and salesman Bob
Schollum -- of the pack rape. The trio have denied raping Nicholas. Koster claimed the
officer who raped her had been drinking with two senior officers earlier on
the night in 1987 when the incident took place. Koster said she was
taken to a house in Rotorua to sleep off a night of heavy drinking and woke
to find the 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,"
Koster said. Wright-St Clair had not
yet spoken to Koster but had received a file from the Wright-St Clair would
not provide any information on the case or the person accused by Koster while
the investigation was under way. He would not confirm if the police officer
accused was still in the force. Koster was working at a
She had been visiting
Rotorua when she was arrested and charged for possession of cannabis. She
claims one of the arresting officers raped her. After her release from
custody, she claimed she met the officer and other policemen at a bar in
Rotorua and drank with them before she was driven to a house to sleep. "I asked them if
there was somewhere I could stay. I just wanted somewhere safe to
sleep," Koster said. "All I can
remember it was a house -- it was like a boy's house. It didn't have much
furniture or plants or anything like that. "He went into the
lounge and he put clothes down, bunches of clothes. He told me to lie down
and go to sleep. I went off to sleep." She claimed she woke to
find him on top of her. "I knew when he
was taking my pants off and I said no. That was not what I wanted, even
though I was a hooker." She was too drunk to
fight him off and thought it would be pointless to try anyway, given he was a
police officer. "To trust this
police officer, it was a big thing for me." She blacked out again
and after waking up in the morning, she claims the officer dropped her off as
he went to work. "He had his
uniform hanging up in the back (of his car)." Nothing was said
between the pair and Koster left. She had not talked to the police officer
since. "Back then I
didn't take note of a policeman's name or anything like that." Koster had been
reluctant to complain for several reasons. She had worked as a
prostitute, used drugs and had convictions for drug offences. She doubted
anyone would believe her, especially given it was a police officer she was
accusing. She could not recall
all of the details about the night she claimed she was raped and she also
feared retribution from police. "The Rotorua
police was like a gang. Just the way they acted. It was quite scary." Koster wanted to see
the man she accused punished. "He's probably got
a family and that now. "But, you know,
sometimes things come back and bite you on the arse when you do wrong." -------------------- CAPTION: Rape claim: |
