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Allegations
of Sexual Abuse |
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Assistant Police Commissioner
Clint Rickards and two former police officers have been charged with the
rape, sexual and indecent assault of Louise Nicholas, it can now be revealed.
Details of the charges
- which follow pack-rape claims made by Mrs Nicholas against the three in The
Dominion Post in January last year - had been suppressed till yesterday. The
newspaper's articles sparked a criminal investigation that led to the men
being charged in March. At a depositions hearing
for Rickards, 44, Brad Shipton, 46, and Bob Schollum, 53, in Rotorua District
Court, Judge Chris McGuire lifted some of the suppression orders. Rickards – who had been
groomed as a future police commissioner – faces eight charges: two with
Shipton and Schollum of raping Mrs Nicholas; one with Shipton of raping her;
another with Shipton of sexually assaulting her; and one with Shipton of
indecently assaulting her. All details of two further charges laid against
the three are suppressed. Shipton also faces
eight charges: one with Rickards and Schollum of raping Mrs Nicholas; two
with Rickards of raping her; one with Rickards and Schollum of sexually
assaulting her; one with Rickards and Schollum of indecently assaulting her;
and one with Rickards of indecently assaulting her. Schollum faces four
charges: one with Rickards and Shipton of raping Mrs Nicholas; and one with
Rickards and Shipton of indecently assaulting her. The offences allegedly
took place in Rotorua between September 1, 1985, and December 31, 1986. Crown prosecutor Mark
Zarifeh said Mrs Nicholas was 18 at the time of the alleged offending. She
had known Schollum for some years and through him she met Rickards and
Shipton at her Corlett St home. She did not consider them friends, but they
became regular visitors. "The sole purpose
of their visits was to have sexual intercourse with her," Mr Zarifeh
said. "Although she told them she did not want to have sex, because
Rickards and Shipton were police officers, combined with their physical presence,
she felt powerless to reject their sexual advances." The pair went to
her house between six and 12 times and each had sex with her against her
will, he said. During this time,
Schollum picked up Mrs Nicholas as she was walking home from work one day.
Instead of taking her home, as promised, he took her to a Rutland St property
being rented by Shipton. The three defendants
then had sex with her, despite her protests. In December 1992, Mrs
Nicholas told her family and police about the alleged abuse but charges were
not laid, Mr Zarifeh said. In a 1995 investigation the accused had
acknowledged having a "consensual sexual relationship" with Mrs
Nicholas but denied the Rutland St allegations. Ross Nicholas, the
future husband of Mrs Nicholas, said in his evidence that on one occasion he
was alone at her home. He answered a knock at the door and was met by Shipton
and Rickards. The pair seemed
surprised and one asked if Trevor Clayton, a fellow policeman and friend of
Mrs Nicholas's brother, was at the property. They left when Mr Nicholas told
them he was not there. Rickards' lawyer, John
Haigh, QC, asked if Mr Clayton was in a relationship with Mrs Nicholas'
flatmate. Mr Nicholas said he did not think so, but the pair had slept
together. Mr Haigh asked Mr Nicholas if the flatmate had several boyfriends
in the police force, to which Mr Nicholas replied: "I'm not sure." Phyllis Nicholas,
Louise Nicholas's future mother-in-law, said she twice noticed police cars at
or near the Corlett St property. On both occasions she had gone to pick
Louise up after receiving phone calls from the distressed teenager. On one occasion,
Phyllis Nicholas found Louise "doubled up in pain". "I wanted to take
her straight up to emergency but she wouldn't let me." Under cross-examination
by Mr Haigh, Phyllis Nicholas said she never inquired about the cars or the
illnesses Louise Nicholas appeared to be having which caused her to ring in a
panic. The Crown has called 44
witnesses but just five will give spoken evidence |
