Stuff
March 2, 2004

$3m set aside for police rape inquiry
NZPA

The Government has set aside $3 million for the Commission of Inquiry into historic allegations of police rape.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said cabinet had approved the budget up to $3m today.

The cost would be spread over this financial year and the next one, she said.

The Government announced last month that the inquiry into allegations of police pack rape would be carried out by High Court judge Justice Bruce Robertson and former senior public servant Dame Margaret Bazley.

It follows allegations by Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas that police assistant commissioner Clint Rickards, who has been stood down from his job as Auckland commander, and two former police officers - Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum - pack-raped her in a police house in Rotorua in the 1980s.

The men deny the allegations.

The inquiry is expected to report back in November.