NZ Herald
January 31, 2004 6:00pm
Top NZ cop under review after pack rape allegations
NZPA
The police command
of New Zealand's biggest city is under review after Auckland's top police
officer was publicly accused of being in a pack rape of a teenage girl 18 years
ago.
Police Commissioner Rob Robinson today ordered a full review of issues raised
in a media report today that a woman was raped by three policemen, including
Clint Rickards who is now an assistant commissioner and
Louise Nicholas claimed in the Dominion Post newspaper today that she was raped
and violated with a baton by the three officers in Rotorua when she was 18
years old, and that another officer covered up her allegations to protect his
colleagues. Mr Robinson said the allegations had potential to be very damaging
to the reputation of
He told reporters in
Deputy Commissioner Steve Long had started work to lead the review and would
assemble a team of senior investigators.
"These are serious historical allegations which involve not only
individual police members but which potentially call into question the
integrity of investigatory work conducted a decade ago," Mr Robinson said.
"I appreciate the concerns that this story has raise in the public's mind
and I will be doing my utmost to provide whatever reassurance I can to maintain
the trust and confidence of the community in the integrity of
Mr Robinson said Mr Rickards was on rostered days off
this weekend and out of
The command would be reviewed again on Monday morning.
Mr Robinson said he had already discussed the media report with Police
Complaints Authority, Judge Ian Borrin, who could
provide directions to him in more discussions early next week.
Mr Rickards and the two other men Mrs Nicholas accused of rape issued a
"strong denial of the allegations and of the serious damage that the story
is doing to their reputations and to their families". The other two men
have since left the police force.
The Dominion Post reported that Mrs Nicholas went to Rotorua police station in
1993 intending to make a formal complaint about the alleged pack rape seven
years earlier but was advised by a detective not to make a complaint in
writing.
She now believes she was manipulated by the detective in order to protect his
police colleagues.
She told the newspaper that even after the initial attack,
two of the police officers would arrive at her home uninvited and always demand
sex.
Two years after she complained to the Rotorua detective, then Detective Chief
Inspector Rex Miller and other senior police were brought in by the Police
Complaints Authority to conduct an investigation.
The newspaper says the PCA inquiry, whose existence had not previously been
made public, looked at whether the Rotorua detective had 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 the
woman was "moulded like play dough" into not making a complaint,
according to the Dominion Post.
Mr Robinson said he personally became aware in the late 1990s of the historical
allegations of sexual offending involving Mr Rickards.
"I was also aware that they had been investigated and that those
investigations had been reviewed and taken to resolution," Mr Robinson
said.
"What is new today is the allegation that the integrity of those
investigations that were conducted into those original historical
allegations... has been called into question."
Mr Robinson said he was "essentially not yet aware of any residual
concerns" that Mr Miller may have.
The police commissioner said the Government was aware of the allegations
against Mr Rickards and they had been investigated to a point of resolution,
before he was appointed assistant commissioner in 2000.