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Allegations
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There was more drama at
the rape trial of an assistant police commissioner and two former officers on
Thursday as the husband of the alleged victim took to the stand. Assistant Police
Commissioner Clint Rickards, and former officers Bob Schollum and Brad
Shipton deny 20 charges of rape, indecent assault and sexual violation
against Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas in the 1980s. Ross Nicholas spent the
afternoon giving evidence, crying as he detailed a visit to his wife-to-be by
two of the accused. He was overcome with emotion as he talked about a muslin
dress he had given his wife as a present - the dress Louise Nicholas claims
she was wearing when all three accused raped her and assaulted her with a police
baton. Ross Nicholas told the
court that he was off sick from work at his future wife's flat when two
police officers knocked on the door. He said they were the two accused, Brad
Shipton and Clint Rickards, and they seemed quite surprised to see him. The defence questioned
his recall as in an earlier statement he had identified the two men as
Shipton and Schollum. Earlier in the day
Louise Nicholas' mother-in-law, Phyllis Nicholas, told the court she saw
marked police cars at the flat on two occasions. She told the court she
was phoned by Louise on three occasions on one day from her Rotorua flat,
back in the mid 1980s. She says on two of
those occasions she went to the flat. She says she found a marked police car
parked in the driveway and on one of the visits two men came out of the
flat and got into the car. Phyllis Nicholas says
her daughter-in-law seemed upset and sick at the time but she didn't know her
well enough to ask her about it. |
