Dominion Post
May 24 2004

Police on mat over sex complaints

Police will explain how they are supposed to deal with sexual complaints against fellow officers at a Commission of Inquiry hearing today, convened after allegations of sexual offending by police officers.

The commission signals the start of 3½ months of hearings that will put police, and the way they have handled complaints of sexual abuse by their own during the past 25 years, under the spotlight.

In January, Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas alleged she was pack-raped and violated with a police baton by three police officers in 1986, when she was aged 18.

Two of the officers, Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton, have since left the police.

The third, Auckland commander and assistant commissioner Clint Rickards, has been stood down on full pay. All three men deny the allegations.

Former Rotorua CIB chief John Dewar is accused of having failed to properly investigate Mrs Nicholas' original complaints.

In the wake of the allegations, another senior police officer, Kelvin Powell, has also been stood down on full pay while police investigate complaints of sexual offences.

The commission will start its hearing behind schedule after initial information gathering was delayed by blanket secrecy provisions in the Police Complaints Authority Act that protect the anonymity of informants.

In the commission's first public meeting in March, High Court judge Justice Bruce Robertson, who heads the inquiry with Dame Margaret Bazley, said he was unsure whether it could report back to the Government by its November deadline.

A law change was rushed through Parliament to allow commission staff to peruse the files.

The commission will hear how police officers were expected and required to respond when an allegation of sexual assault was made against another police officer.

Police lawyer Kristy McDonald will be calling Superintendent Dave Trappitt, for the Office of the Commissioner, as a formal witness to explain procedures.

The hearing should take a day.

A commission spokesman could not say when evidence from those alleging their complaints were mishandled would be heard, because it was still being collected.

Since a call for submissions was made in March, three interviewers have flown around New Zealand to meet those people and record their stories.

The number of people who have come forward is not being made public, as the commissioners try to reassure potential informants that unnecessary information will not be made public.