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,
Now add current
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
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.