NZ Herald
March 4, 2004
Allegations 'should have triggered alarm bells'
by Eugene Bingham
Louise Nicholas
Fresh revelations about the background pack-rape
allegations by Louise Nicholas show she first complained of sexual abuse by
police as a schoolgirl.
Court documents record evidence that her mother sought help for her but was put
off by a local policeman - later accused of also interfering with Mrs Nicholas.
Details about Mrs Nicholas' claims were aired in three trials held in Rotorua
during 1993-1994, although they were covered by suppression orders lifted only
yesterday.
The trials related to a former policeman accused by Mrs Nicholas of indecently
assaulting and having sex with her in 1983, when she was 15 and boarding with
him and his family.
The first two trials were aborted because of inadmissible evidence given by
Detective Inspector John Dewar. The third jury acquitted the former policeman,
whose name remains suppressed.
During the trial, Mrs Nicholas' separate allegation came to light, that she had
been pack raped and violated with a baton by three other police officers: Clint
Rickards (who has been stood down as district commander of the Auckland
police), Brad Shipton (now a Tauranga district councillor and bar owner) and
Bob Schollum (now a Napier car salesman).
Mrs Nicholas' allegations are the subject of a commission of inquiry and a
top-level criminal investigation ordered after she went public in January
claiming that the pack-rape complaint was covered up by Mr Dewar.
She alleges that seven officers committed sexual offences against her but when
she sought to make a formal complaint to the police in 1993, Mr Dewar had
discouraged her from making official accusations against six of them.
In her evidence against the seventh, Mrs Nicholas said that he first had sex
with her while she was a 13-year-old.
The first time, she said, was in a police station.
There was evidence that not long after the alleged sexual contact began, she
swallowed a bottle of pills, but the antihistamines had no effect.
Mrs Nicholas' mother, Barbara Crawford, told the court that in 1983 the former
policeman offered to let Mrs Nicholas board with his family in Rotorua. But the
former policeman and his wife said Mrs Nicholas' parents had asked if she could
stay with them.
Mrs Nicholas said she protested about going, and alleged that the abuse
continued during the two to three months she was boarding there.
The former policeman denied all sexual contact.
She returned home after the former policeman confronted Mrs Crawford and said
that her daughter was saying he was having sex with her.
Mrs Crawford said she went to see a policeman who was also a friend of the
family.
"He just advised that there was nothing I really could do about it - who
would believe a young girl against a police [officer]," Mrs Crawford told
the first trial.
"I must admit I had the same thought. He suggested I didn't tell my
husband and I didn't want to either."
One of Mrs Nicholas' teachers said that she had noticed changes in her
behaviour during the fifth form.
In her capacity as school guidance counsellor, the teacher later asked Mrs
Nicholas what was wrong.
"She told me that there was a sexual relationship that she had been
involved in with an older man and I understood he was a family friend and as I
recall later I believe he was a police person," said the teacher.
Under cross-examination in the third trial, Mrs Nicholas also admitted telling
the teacher that she had been raped by a group of Maori youths out riding their
horses.
"I don't know why I had said that. Obviously I did but I have never been
raped by any Maori on horseback."
The trials heard that in January 1993, after counselling, Mrs Nicholas told her
parents about what had happened. Her father contacted a policeman he knew, then
Senior Sergeant Ray Sutton.
Mr Dewar assumed responsibility for the complaint and took two statements from
her that year, although they only related to the former policeman eventually
charged.
At the time, she had accused several other policemen. One of them was the
officer Mrs Crawford said told her to forget about complaining.
Mrs Nicholas also named Mr Rickards, Mr Shipton and Mr Schollum, but Mr Dewar
said he advised her not to make a statement.
"Those details were non-specific in time and event and I wished to give
her the opportunity to consider those matters, to collect her memory, and then
later if she so wished to do so, make a formal complaint," he told the
second trial.
He eventually took a statement about Mr Rickards and the other officers in
February 1994.
The allegations against the officers accused of interfering with her as a
teenager were found to have been not proved - a decision backed up by the
Police Complaints Authority at the time. Another Police Complaints Authority
investigation criticised Mr Dewar's handling of the pack-rape complaint.
The actions of Mr Dewar were also criticised by a judge who said that Mrs
Nicholas' allegations "should have triggered alarm bells that would have
permanently silenced Big Ben no matter how vague in terms of time and event or
place".
"Even more surprising than the failure to record [the allegations] is the
officer's deliberate advice ... not to make a statement," said Judge
Michael Lance, QC.
Judge Lance said that the fact the former policeman was the only one pursued
while allegations against serving officers went unrecorded lent weight to
arguments that the defendant was a "sacrificial lamb".
The judge in the second trial said the actions of Mr Dewar leading to the trial
being aborted raised a question mark about his motives.
The allegations against all seven policemen are being re-examined by
investigators headed by Superintendent Nick Perry. Mr Dewar has taken leave
from St John Ambulance in