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.