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Allegations
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Clint Rickards could
face disciplinary action after wearing his police uniform in the dock at the
High Court in Auckland to face historic sex charges. The trial of assistant
commissioner Rickards and two former policemen, Bradley Keith Shipton and
Robert Francis Schollum, began in Auckland yesterday after Rotorua woman
Louise Nicholas complained they had raped and sexually abused her more than
20 years ago in Rotorua. Rickards wore his
police uniform, complete with his assistant commissioner's badges of rank,
when he and the other two stood in the dock and pleaded not guilty to 20
charges. Rickards' appearance in
the dock in uniform raised eyebrows among the many media assembled in the
court to cover the trial but it also did not go unnoticed at Police National
Headquarters in Wellington. Rickards, who is
suspended on full pay while the charges are dealt with, is believed to have
been given a direction from his national headquarters that regulations forbid
the wearing of uniform on suspension. Rickards could face
police disciplinary action for breaching police regulations but his lawyer,
John Haigh QC, said that issue was trivial compared with the seriousness of
the trial. The three men are likely
to face their accuser today when Louise Nicholas gives evidence. |
