One News
February 1, 2004
Ex-inspector backs rape accuser
One of the police
who took part in a Police Complaints Authority inquiry into the handling of an
allegation of rape against police officers says the complainant was manipulated
into not making a formal complaint.
Rotorua housewife Louise Nicholas alleges she was brutally raped by three
police officers in about 1986, and that the police failed to deal with it
properly.
Former Detective Chief Inspector Rex Miller and other senior police were part
of a Police Complaints Authority investigation in 1995 into the handling of the
allegation.
Miller says he had concerns right from the start that the complainant had been
manipulated into not making a formal complaint.
He says the investigation by the Police Complaints Authority was hampered by
Nicholas' reluctance to say anything negative about the investigating officer.
The Dominion Post has reported that Nicholas was reluctant to cooperate with
the earlier investigation into the handling of the allegation because she
believed the investigating officer, John Dewar, was a friend and had been
sympathetic to her.
Meanwhile Police Commissioner Rob Robinson says he hopes a full review of the
allegations will reassure the community of the integrity of the police.
Robinson has called for a full review of the matters raised by the complainant,
the original allegations, and the inquiry into them.
He says he was aware of the allegations against the officers from the 1990s but
understood they were investigated and the situation was resolved.