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Allegations
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A Bay of Plenty police officer
accused of sexually violating a colleague's girlfriend believes he is a
victim of police efforts to be "whiter than white" in the aftermath
of the Louise Nicholas rape allegations. Constable Glenn Wilson,
37, is accused of sexually violating a woman - the girlfriend of a close
friend - at a New Year's Eve party in Tauranga. He denies the
allegation and says it was consensual. The case is the latest sex scandal to
rock Bay of Plenty police, after Rotorua woman Nicholas' allegation that she
was pack-raped in 1986 by Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards and
former policemen Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum. Police are testing
evidence with Crown solicitors and will decide soon whether to lay charges
against the trio. Bay of Plenty District
Police Commander Superintendent Gary Smith confirmed another officer had been
stood down while a complaint of sexual violation was investigated. The inquiry was being
headed by Detective Inspector Garth Bryan and the officer was suspended on
full pay. It is understood the
situation has caused division among Bay of Plenty officers. Advertisement The Sunday Star-Times
visited Wilson at his Papamoa Beach home last week. He wanted to speak to
clear his name and because "I have nothing to hide". Wilson said in any
other circumstances the case would have been dropped by now. "Exactly the same
situation with a normal member of the public, it would have gone away in the
first day. The Louise Nicholas type thing hasn't helped this go where it
should have gone right from the word go." The Star-Times has
learned that Wilson and the alleged victim were at a barbecue on New Year's
Eve, and the woman's police officer boyfriend was working. The boyfriend had
arranged to meet the woman at the party but she was gone when he arrived. When he found her, she
alleged she had been sexually violated and made a formal complaint that day. Wilson, who has been a
police officer for eight years, was interviewed over three-and-a-half hours
and gave a "full and frank" statement. He was stood down on January
5. Wilson said the case
"snowballed" because the woman, with whom he had formed a close
bond, was too scared to tell her boyfriend the incident was consensual. "There are major
issues around the boyfriend. He's driving it. I overstepped some moral
boundaries. I could do with a rocket from him but where it's going is bizarre
in the extreme." Wilson said he was not
angry with the woman. "She's a nice girl, I feel sorry for her. She's
gone too far to back out of it and I don't think the police will allow her
to. "Police are trying
to be whiter than white. Instead of doing a normal inquiry and doing an
investigation first, they've gone down the track of we're gonna charge him
and we're going to build a case around it. "They've got a
mindset that they're scared it's going to come and bite them on the arse
later on. There's no way they are going to leave a stone unturned in case
five years down the track someone says there was a complaint and nothing was
done." Wilson said he felt
sorry for the police officers accused by Nicholas. "I definitely feel
for them and they are victims of a public perception that some people, and
the media, like to see the police go down." |
