One News
February 8, 2004
Nicholas consented: flatmate
Police say they're
likely to interview a former flatmate of Louise Nicholas again when they
re-investigate her allegations that she was pack-raped by three police
officers.
The flatmate said in a statement that Nicholas consented to sex and enjoyed it.
The three police officers Nicholas has accused have always claimed the sex was
consensual.
In a statement to Police Complaints Authority investigator Rex Miller, the
flatmate said that she and Nicholas both had group sex with the policemen during
the 1980s.
However Nicholas later accused the men of rape and in 1995 Miller flew to
Miller believes the flatmate did not want to return to
"It was just a gut feeling that I had that she wasn't being as truthful as
she could have been," he says.
He believes that was why she said the sex was consensual for both women.
"I gained the impression that she was ashamed of what had happened and
didn't want to be reminded of it," says Miller.
Nicholas says she doesn't understand the former flatmate's claims.
"It's very untrue. I don't know why she has come across and said all this.
Events that took place in that house with me and those men,
there was nobody else there ever."
Miller says Nicholas seemed a far more reliable witness than her flatmate.
"She was more believable and of course she hasn't faltered one iota from
day one, and she's still telling the same story," he says.
The three men Nicholas has accused of rape are Assistant Commissioner Clint
Rickards (who has been stood down from duty) and former policemen Brad Shipton
and Bob Schollum. All three vehemently deny the allegations, and say the sex
was consensual.
A dozen police officers are now working on the re-opened criminal investigation
into Nicholas's allegations. A spokesman says it's likely they'll try to trace
her former flatmate for another interview.