Waikato Times
February 16, 2004

Muddy waters getting murkier

The new police investigation of Louise Nicholas' rape allegations has only just begun, yet the casualties are mounting up.

There is, of course, Nicholas, the 36-year-old mother-of-three who alleges pack rape by three police officers in a house in Rotorua when she was a teenager. There are the three accused, Auckland and former Waikato police head Clint Rickards, Napier car salesman Bob Schollum and Tauranga councillor Brad Shipton. Add in at least another two women now alleging historical rapes by police; and John Dewar, the former inspector who handled Nicholas' initial complaint, badly apparently, and who is alleged to have engaged in group sex with one of the accused on another occasion. More and more people are becoming deeply entangled.

Now add current Waikato police head Kelvin Powell. The superintendent was stood down on the weekend for unspecified reasons after being interviewed on Thursday by the Nicholas investigation team.

All should be considered casualties because they are in the spotlight for events that happened nearly 20 years ago.

Whether she did or did not consent to sex with the officers, the incident has clearly scarred Nicholas. Irrespective of whether they are innocent or guilty, Rickards, Schollum and Shipton will have huge moral question marks next to their names. The other two rape complainants -- Kaitaia's Judy Garrett and Rotorua's Rhondda Herbert-Savage -- are also struggling to deal with the past. Dewar has queries over his professionalism.

Then there is Powell. His case is perhaps the most concerning currently. In refusing to clearly define why he has been stood down, police managers are only serving to encourage rumours. Management say he is not the so-called fourth man -- the man Nicholas alleges watched the three policemen rape her -- but that still leaves Powell as the centre of conjecture.

There is an increasingly strong Waikato link to the case. The former boss of the region's police force (Rickards) is one of the alleged perpetrators; the former Rotorua officer taken to task for his handling of the initial investigation (Dewar) is now with St John ambulance in Hamilton; Rex Miller, who investigated Dewar's handling of the case as part of the Police Complaints Authority look at the case, was Hamilton-based and still lives here; and now there is Powell.

A small segment of the public here have been vociferous in their belief that the whole tale is media muckraking of events that long since should have been forgotten. They are wrong. There are wider issues at stake. This case is so serious the prime minister has ordered an independent inquiry.

Justice must be done, but the tough job for police and the PM's team is to get it done as quickly as possible and with as little impact as possible on the players on the periphery.