NZ Herald
February 18, 2004
Suspended commander confident he'll be cleared
by Ainsley Thomson
Waikato district
police commander Kelvin Powell, suspended on Saturday as the inquiry into the
alleged Rotorua police pack rape widened, has denied any wrongdoing.
Yesterday, Mr Powell's lawyer, Susan Hughes, said they were confident any
inquiry would exonerate him.
Ms Hughes said Mr Powell had been given a stand-down notice, but otherwise had
not heard from the commission of inquiry.
The Herald has learned that Mr Powell is one of four officers that Rotorua
woman Louise Nicholas previously complained committed sexual indecencies on her
in Murupara between 1980 and 1983, when she was aged
13 to 15.
Mr Powell and the officers involved in the Murupara
claims denied the allegations at the time of the original investigations.
The matter was subsequently investigated by then-Detective Inspector John Dewar
and cleared as "not established"
These complaints were separate from the rape Mrs Nicholas has alleged Assistant
Commissioner Clint Rickards, Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum committed in Rotorua
in 1986 when she was about 18.
Mr Rickards has been stood down as