Stuff
February 6, 2004
Alleged police rape victim happy to be back in paradise
NZPA
Judith Garrett
holds her head high when she walks in Kaitaia, a Far
North town where nasty pamphlets were once displayed accusing her of crying
rape.
Ms Garrett, who nearly 16 years ago complained she was handcuffed and raped by
a Kaitaia police officer, moved back to the area just
10 days ago after spending five years being "anonymous" in Otago.
Ms Garrett's return to Kaitaia coincides with news
that her alleged 1988 rape by a constable will be taken into account when terms
of reference are decided for a commission of inquiry into claims police covered
up the alleged rape by three police officers of Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said Ms Garrett's case "made her hair stand on
end" and raised questions about the culture within the police.
Ms Garrett, 60, said Miss Clark's decision was "really gratifying".
"I had completely given up," she said.
Charges were never laid, and Ms Garrett took her case to the Court of Appeal.
Ms Garrett, who emigrated from
"I think it was good getting some distance from it all; as time goes past
your grief lessens." But she missed her close friends and felt homesick,
so moved back at the end of January.
"Kaitaia is much less of a frontier town now. There's tourists, a lot of millionaires living in the area.
It's changed. It's a nice town now – well, I think it is.
"When I've come home I've seen it's changed. And there's new police
now."
She had intended to "quietly settle in" to her "little part of
paradise".
That was before she heard a radio report about a cover-up of a police rape.
The similarities to her own experience were uncanny, and she assumed the report
was about her – but it turned out to be about Mrs Nicholas.
She had contacted the Rotorua woman to offer her support.
Ms Garrett said she had been through so much after her alleged rape, that she
just wanted the commission of inquiry to "go where it's going to go",
and she would not push for the criminal case to re-open.
She said that after her alleged rape some Kaitaia
people close to the case had "spun" stories to explain the sex as
"consensual", something she now says is laughable, but at the time
saw her barely venture outside for six months.
Friends had eventually convinced her to go to a function but that had proved
disastrous when she encountered people who abused her for "lying about
cops".
Then a pamphlet was circulated stating: "Judith Garrett seduces boys then
cries rape. Mothers beware. Do the town a favour and display this
pamphlet."
Ms Garrett now lives in a house near Kaitaia that she
shares with a close friend, and two dogs.
The police officer she claims raped her is now understood to be living in