Newstalk ZB
Monday, 24 May 2004 (b)

Commission hears rape complaint procedures

Police procedures for handling rape complaints have been outlined at a hearing of the Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct.

The commission is sitting in Wellington today.

It was established following allegations by Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas that three officers pack-raped her in 1986.

Superintendent Dave Trappett, the national manager of planning and policy for the police, told the hearing a 1980 instruction confirmed that officers committing criminal offences should not be treated differently to the general public.

Investigators were also to use the same skills in those circumstances as in any general criminal investigation.