The Press
October 20 2004
Rape was 17 years ago, says woman
by Jarrod Booker
A
Niki Koster,
38, decided to go to police to complain after Louise Nicholas went public in
January with allegations she was pack-raped and violated with a baton by three
police officers in Rotorua in 1986.
Nicholas accused
Assistant Commissioner Clint Rickards, and two men who have since left the
police -- former Tauranga city councillor Brad Shipton and salesman Bob
Schollum -- of the pack rape. The trio have denied raping Nicholas.
Koster claimed the officer who
raped her had been drinking with two senior officers earlier on the night in
1987 when the incident took place.
Koster said she was taken to a
house in Rotorua to sleep off a night of heavy drinking and woke to find the
officer having sex with her.
Too drunk and scared to
fight him off, her pleas for him to stop went unheeded, she claimed.
"I suppressed it for
a lot of years and now I want to talk about it. I feel I have a story. You
don't know who you can trust -- even if they have got a uniform on," Koster said.
Wright-St Clair had not
yet spoken to Koster but had received a file from the
Wright-St Clair would not
provide any information on the case or the person accused by Koster while the investigation was under way. He would not
confirm if the police officer accused was still in the force.
Koster was working at a
She had been visiting
Rotorua when she was arrested and charged for possession of cannabis. She
claims one of the arresting officers raped her.
After her release from custody,
she claimed she met the officer and other policemen at a bar in Rotorua and
drank with them before she was driven to a house to sleep.
"I asked them if
there was somewhere I could stay. I just wanted somewhere safe to sleep," Koster said.
"All I can remember
it was a house -- it was like a boy's house. It didn't have much furniture or
plants or anything like that.
"He went into the
lounge and he put clothes down, bunches of clothes. He told me to lie down and
go to sleep. I went off to sleep."
She claimed she woke to
find him on top of her.
"I knew when he was
taking my pants off and I said no. That was not what I wanted, even though I
was a hooker."
She was too drunk to
fight him off and thought it would be pointless to try anyway, given he was a
police officer.
"To trust this
police officer, it was a big thing for me."
She blacked out again and
after waking up in the morning, she claims the officer dropped her off as he
went to work.
"He had his uniform
hanging up in the back (of his car)."
Nothing was said between
the pair and Koster left. She had not talked to the
police officer since.
"Back then I didn't
take note of a policeman's name or anything like that."
Koster had been reluctant to
complain for several reasons.
She had worked as a
prostitute, used drugs and had convictions for drug offences. She doubted
anyone would believe her, especially given it was a
police officer she was accusing.
She could not recall all
of the details about the night she claimed she was raped and she also feared
retribution from police.
"The Rotorua police
was like a gang. Just the way they acted. It was quite scary."
Koster wanted to see the man
she accused punished.
"He's probably got a
family and that now.
"But, you know,
sometimes things come back and bite you on the arse when you do wrong."
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CAPTION: Rape claim: