Otago Daily Times
February 10, 2004
Sex claim baffles Nicholas
Ex-flatmate says police did not rape woman
NZPA
Rotorua: Louise Nicholas, the woman who alleged she was pack-raped by three
policemen, says she is baffled why her former flatmate and friend claims the
sex was consensual.
The three men involved - assistant commissioner and Auckland police commander
Clint Rickards, Tauranga city councillor Brad Shipton and Napier car dealer Bob
Schollum - have vigorously denied Mrs Nicholas' allegations.
Mr Rickards has been stood down on full pay while the claims are investigated.
Mrs Nicholas said on Sunday she considered her former flatmate a friend and was
confused about why she would make such allegations.
The woman, who flatted with Mrs Nicholas around the time she alleges she was pack-raped
by the three police officers, has told police she believed Mrs Nicholas' sex
with the officers was consensual.
She also said both she and Mrs Nicholas had group sex with the officers.
The claims were made in a police statement in 1995 when the flatmate was spoken
to by former detective chief inspector Rex Miller.
Mr Miller went to
Mrs Nicholas alleges she was pack-raped by the police officers and violated
with a baton in Rotorua in 1986, when she was 18.
She said on Sunday claims by her former flatmate that they both had group and
consensual sex with the officers were "definitely not true".
When asked why her former flatmate would lie, she replied: "That is
something people would have to ask her".
Mrs Nicholas said she and her former flatmate had lost contact in the 1980s.
"We were friends, very much so. We lived together and worked together . .
. Whatever reason she had for saying it, I would like to ask her myself."