Sunday Star Times
February 15, 2004
Rotorua police district damned in report
By Rachel Grunwell
An official
investigation into police mishandling of a rape complaint criticised at least
one officer and named others who have come under fire in the Louise Nicholas
inquiry.
It shows that police headquarters have long been aware of failures by officers stationed
in the Rotorua policing district at the time Nicholas claims her rape
complaints were mishandled.
The inquiry was into the mishandling of a complaint of rape made by Rhondda
Herbert-Savage in the 1980s, and was carried out by then-detective inspector
Graham Bell. It damns the handling of her inquiry and the police culture in Murupara, part of the Rotorua district, at the time.
Herbert-Savage allowed the Sunday Star-Times to help her lift her name
suppression in the High Court at Rotorua last Friday. She said she wanted the
suppression automatically accorded to sex attack victims lifted to let her
childhood friend Nicholas know she was not alone.
Nicholas has accused three men - assistant commissioner Clint Rickards and two
former officers Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum - of raping her in a Rotorua
house in 1986. The three deny the rape claims and say the sex was consensual.
The officer in charge of the police re-investigation into Nicholas' claims,
superintendent Nick Perry, said eight officers from outside Rotorua had started
interviewing people connected with the allegations.
Thirty people had been interviewed already in the
Herbert-Savage, then aged 14, complained to police in 1981 she had been raped
twice. In his report to headquarters, written in 1996,
He singled out the actions of then constable Trevor Clayton, to whom
Herbert-Savage initially complained, as "a gross neglect of duty".
Clayton, who died last year, is recorded in police documents regarding the
Nicholas case as being prepared, on oath, to "protect his mates" if
asked about her in court.
"It is clear at the time police did nothing whatsoever about this
(Herbert-Savage's) complainant,"
Bob Schollum was also interviewed by
The Murupara station's boss at the time, sergeant Warren Smith, was also criticised over the
Herbert-Savage case.
Smith was transferred from Murupara for disciplinary
reasons following a police internal finding of dereliction of duty, but it is
not known what this related to. One of the officers at this tribunal hearing
described Smith's attitude in refusing to take action as "typical of the
sergeant at the time".
However,
East Coast MP Janet Mackey is delivering Herbert-Savage's case files to
Attorney-General Margaret Wilson's office tomorrow to see if they could be
included in the commission of inquiry.
The terms of the inquiry are due tomorrow.