The Dominion Post
February 2, 2004
Baton used for sex, officer told
by Philip Kitchin
The victim: Louise Nicholas with
police documents.
Of Mrs Butcher she said: 'Thank you ….It's pretty
gutsy for a policewoman or any member of the police
to come forward and help me out.'
A former
Rotorua policewoman says the police baton she lost in the mid-1980s was
returned to her by a policeman who said it had been used for deviant sex on a
young girl.
Aucklander Carolyn Butcher was a police officer in
Rotorua serving in the same squad as Bob Schollum, one of three men accused by
Louise Nicholas of raping her and violating her with a police baton in about
1986.
The three men – Mr Schollum,
In 1995 an inquiry found that former head of Rotorua CIB, John Dewar, had
failed to record or investigate properly Mrs Nicholas' allegations that she had
been raped by the men and violated with a baton.
In a recent conversation with Mrs Nicholas, in which she had a secret camera,
Mr Dewar said he "certainly knew the part regarding the baton was not
consensual".
"It would be hard to understand why you would consent to that."
Former detective chief inspector Rex Miller, who headed the inquiry, says
investigators had not known about Mrs Butcher's missing baton till now.
Mrs Butcher told TVNZ that she realised her baton was missing when she went to
go on duty one day, but that she no longer remembered whether it was a couple
of months or a couple of weeks before she got it back.
Asked whether she had been told exactly what the baton had been used for, Mrs
Butcher said she "had the feeling that it was a threesome from the
suggestions that were made".
"The exact wording, I have no idea. But I have no idea if it's consensual
. . . I presumed it was consensual. I wouldn't have any reason to think
otherwise."
Asked if she had told anyone else at the police station that her baton had been
used for deviant sexual behaviour, she said: "Plenty of people, yes."
She was disgusted at what the baton had been used for and left it in the bottom
of her locker for some months before throwing it out. "I was never going
to use it again."
She said no one had asked her to destroy the baton, but she had decided to get
rid of it because she "didn't want to use a baton which had been used for
sex. The thought disgusted me."
No one, till now, had questioned her about her baton.
Mrs Butcher said she was disgusted by the possibility that her missing baton
could be linked to Mrs Nicholas' allegations.
"I'm disgusted that somebody could have used my baton, if there's a
possibility that someone could have used my baton in that way."
Reporter: "Do you think there could be any link?"
Mrs Butcher: "For me to say so would be speculation, but the circumstances
surrounding it quite disgust me and it makes me sad to think someone's placed
me in the position of having a baton which could have been used for such a
thing."
Mrs Nicholas wept yesterday when she heard what Mrs Butcher had said, and was
asked what it meant to her.
"God . . . God . . . (it means) that I'm telling the truth."
What Mrs Butcher had said had for the first time given her backing for what she
had told police.
Of Mrs Butcher she said: "Thank you. I thank her for coming forward with
it. It's pretty gutsy for a policewoman or any member of the police to come
forward and help me out."
Still visibly upset, Mrs Nicholas said she knew her allegations were hurting
many people.
"It hurts me to know there are other families out there that are going to
be affected by this but at the end of the day I've got to do what's right for
me and I, I've done nothing wrong and I just want justice.
"That's all I'm asking for."