The Dominion Post
January 31, 2004

'No, I don't want this'
by Philip Kitchin


The woman at the centre of rape allegations against three men including a police assistant commissioner says she knew before they touched her what was about to happen.

The incidents began, she says, in Rotorua when she was walking home from work one day in about 1986.

She alleges Bob Schollum, a former friend of her father, offered her a lift home but instead took her to a house she had never been to before.

Louise Nicholas says she recognised Clint Rickards and Brad Shipton at the house but did not know a fourth man wearing a police shirt but mufti trousers.

"The next thing I can recall about this incident is being in a bedroom . . . the room was dull, possibly because the curtains were closed, but I could still clearly identify the people who were in the room with me.

"Schollum and Shipton were wearing shorts but I'm not sure what Rickards was wearing.

"I protested vigorously about being in the room with them because I knew what was about to happen. I was saying, `No, I don't want this, guys.' I remember pleading more with Schollum because I knew him better.

"All three started to abuse me sexually … all three had intercourse with me."

Mrs Nicholas said Mr Shipton brought out a wooden police baton and she protested, saying, "No way."

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."

Mrs Nicholas says she cried as she was driven home and Mr Schollum said, "I'm sorry, Lou," when she was dropped off at her nearby flat.

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 said: "It was around this time that Rickards and Shipton from time to time would call around to my house uninvited.

"They would insist on having sex with me . . . the sex would occur on the floor in the lounge and it was usually two on one . . . they wanted me to perform indecent acts on them.

"The lounge had big French doors with net curtains. You could see out the French doors but people could not see into the lounge because of the curtains. There was a clear view of the driveway and anyone approaching from outside.

"They would normally drop their trousers and remove any lower garments I was wearing. I never physically undressed them or myself.

"There was never an occasion when they visited and didn't insist on having sex. The sex was the only reason they were coming around and it was not at my invitation.

"As soon as I saw these two on my doorstep my heart skipped a beat and I would think to myself, `Here we go again.'

"I never ever gave any consent to any of these people. It was always taken for granted."

Mrs Nicholas says she tried complaining about the three police officers to Trevor Clayton, a policeman she knew through her family and whom she hoped might persuade his colleagues to leave her alone.

Mr Clayton, who subsequently left the police, died last year.

"He knew all about it because I did tell him . . . he was a good mate of my brother's."

In a record of an interview made during an investigation of Mrs Nicholas' complaints, Mr Clayton admitted doing nothing about her allegations, and being prepared to lie about her in court, in order to protect his "mates".

Mrs Nicholas said that, once she met her husband and began a relationship with him, the visits stopped.

The Dominion Post asked her why people should believe that she was raped on several different occasions when she had not fought, run or made a formal complaint at the time.

She said she did complain to police [to Mr Clayton], and to the alleged rapists.

"I would say to them, `No. C'mon guys, just no. I don't want it. Just don't.'

"It meant nothing. It just went in one ear and out the other -- if in fact it got that far."

She says the authority and power of the police intimidated her and, when she complained, she was told no one would prefer her word to a police officer's.

"Sure, I didn't scream and I didn't fight and I didn't do what people would think you should do.

"I was shit-scared. And I don't know how else I can explain it. You just go . . . you just fold into yourself when all these things are happening. You are not even there. You just go away from your body and you are just not even there.

"You just close your eyes and think of other things."