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Allegations
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A suspended top policeman
on trial for rape will enter the witness box on Wednesday. Assistant Police
Commissioner Clint Rickard's lawyer told the jury they'll hear a much
different version of events from that told by his accuser - Louise Nicholas. Rickards strongly denies
all the allegations made by Nicholas, including charges that, with the two
others on trial with him, he raped and assaulted her with a baton. However, he admits to
consensual sex with her on two occasions and says she actually played up to
him. When he opened his
defence on Tuesday, Rickards's lawyer John Haigh QC told the jury Nicholas
had told a series of calculated lies. He claimed the Rotorua
woman's memory of events some 20 years ago was made up of delusional
recollections and was utterly false. Haigh highlighted the
evidence of Nicholas's flatmate, saying there was a huge clash between their
version of events. The flatmate had talked of a great freedom of sexuality at
the time, in stark contrast to what he called the gloom and subterfuge of
Nicholas. He also questioned why
she had walked into what he called the lions' den allegedly to be raped by
all three men and continued to have sex with two of them for some months. Haigh told jurors a
nightmare has enveloped Rickards and virtually ruined his career but they can
end all that by acquitting him of all charges. |
