Sunday Star Times
February 22, 2004

Family ties in botched police rape inquiries
by Rachel Grunwell

Allegations against cop's cousin were ignored
`Because the rapist enjoyed a "good relationship" with officers, police refused to believe he was capable of any wrong-doing.'


Former policeman Bob Schollum, one of three men facing pack-rape allegations in the Louise Nicholas case, is the cousin of a rapist at the centre of two botched police rape investigations.

Schollum worked as an officer at Murupara around the time staff ignored two rape complaints involving his cousin. One case was later investigated by different staff and the man was jailed.

But Schollum said yesterday he knew "absolutely nothing" of both cases and was mystified about why a police report said he was interviewed in relation to the cases.

Asked whether the fact his cousin was the accused may have led police to ignore the complaints, Schollum said he did not know if staff knew they were related.

In both cases, it was later recommended by former detective inspector Graham Bell that police commissioner Rob Robinson apologise for police inaction. But only one victim has so far received a formal apology.

Name suppression was this month lifted for one of these victims, Rhondda Herbert-Savage, to whom Robinson apologised in 2000. Herbert-Savage was twice raped as a teenager in Murupara in the 1980s.

The same man who raped Herbert-Savage also sexually offended against three girls and police failed to properly act on this complaint.

In a report written in 1996, Bell said policing in Murupara at the time was superficial and that because the rapist enjoyed a "good relationship" with officers, police refused to believe he was capable of any wrongdoing so did not record the complaints or investigate.

Schollum said yesterday he no longer had contact with his cousin.

Bell's report said the three girls' case "did not receive the police attention it deserved" and Herbert-Savage's case was "grossly inadequate".

Herbert-Savage fought for her apology and wants compensation, but the mother of the three girls was unaware police had also recommended an apology for her case.

Bell said in the report there was no doubt in his mind the mother reported the sexual abuse of her daughters to then-sergeant Warren Smith in Murupara immediately after she found one of her children in bed with the offender.

"I have no doubt that sergeant Smith went to the house and took (the offender) away as described by (the mother) but that from there, no further action was taken. No explanation for this dereliction of duty is given by the sergeant as he claims to have no recollection of the events," said Bell. All officers at the station knew about the complaints but did nothing, he said.

It was after the girls again complained and the man was jailed that Herbert-Savage's mishandled complaint came to light. The man was tried for her rape but was acquitted. However, Bell said he had no doubt the man was guilty but the case was hindered because of the delay to court and lost medical evidence.

A government-ordered commission of inquiry into police behaviour follows Louise Nicholas' allegations Schollum, now a Napier car salesman, Tauranga city councillor Brad Shipton and police assistant commissioner Clint Rickards, pack-raped her as a teenager in Rotorua in the 1980s. All three men deny this and say the sex was consensual.