Newstalk ZB
February 17, 2004
Govt promises thorough inquiry
Dame Margaret Bazley and High Court judge, Bruce Robertson will conduct
Commission of Inquiry into police rape allegations
The Government is promising a thorough Commission of Inquiry into rape
allegations against the police.
It has announced retired public servant Dame Margaret Bazley
and High Court judge Bruce Robertson will conduct the
inquiry, which Prime Minister Helen Clark says will take until at least
November.
Miss Clark is urging any other people with similar allegations to come forward
immediately so that their claims can be considered by the inquiry.
She expects the investigation to be totally transparent and says it will be
held in public, as the wine box inquiry was.
The commission was ordered after Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas claimed that
police officers sexually assaulted her between 1980 and 1986 when she was a
teenager. She alleges a subsequent police investigation, by former Rotorua CIB
boss John Dewar, was mishandled.
One of the officers at the centre of the allegations, Assistant Commissioner
Clint Rickards, has been stood down from his post, for allegedly pack-raping Ms
Nicholas in 1986. Kelvin Powell, Waikato District Police Commander, is also
implicated in Ms Nicholas' complaints.
Another woman has also accused Mr Dewar of taking part in group sex with Brad
Shipton, who has been named in Mrs Nicholas' complaint.
In addition, allegations have been made by Judith Garrett, who alleged that she
was raped in 1988 by a constable at the Kaitaia
police station. Her private prosecution was unsuccessful.
The police have opened a criminal inquiry into the allegations stemming from
Mrs Nicholas, and the Police Complaints Authority is investigating.