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Allegations
of Sexual Abuse |
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Clint Rickards, one of
the highest ranking officers in the New Zealand police, takes the stand in
the High Court at Auckland today to reply to rape allegations that his lawyer
says have probably destroyed his career. The 45-year-old
assistant commissioner will enter the witness box in courtroom 12 this
morning to deny, for the third time in 20 years, that he ever raped, sexually
violated or indecently assaulted Louise Nicholas, now 38. Mrs Nicholas told the
court last week that Rickards and former police officers Brad Shipton, 47,
and Bob Schollum, 53, took turns at raping her before using a police baton to
sexually violate her at a police house in Rutland St, Rotorua, in January 1986.
She also alleges that
between September 1985 and January 1986 Shipton and Rickards, who were police
officers working in Rotorua, visited her Corlett St flat uninvited for sex
she never consented to. Prosecutor Brent
Stanaway finished the Crown case yesterday before Queen's Counsel John Haigh
opened the defence for Rickards, asking the jury of seven women and five men
to acquit his client and end the nightmare that had enveloped him and
practically destroyed his career. Rickards, as he has
done for the seven days the trial has run, sat still, hands clasped in front
of him, his face expressionless. Mr Haigh said the case
for Rickards was not a moral one. Rickards had a partner
and two children when he admits he had two consensual sexual encounters with
Mrs Nicholas. "What he did was
unquestionably morally wrong but we all need to step back in time and
evaluate the environment as it was 20 years ago." Mr Haigh said there
were five points where the Crown case failed in respect of Rickards. Evidence from Mrs
Nicholas's flatmate at the time described a friendly atmosphere at the flat.
She said she was present and also had sex with at least Shipton and Schollum.
Mr Haigh said there was
a "freedom of sexuality which may seem astonishing to many of us but
nevertheless existed". He said Mrs Nicholas's
claim of being raped and indecently assaulted with the baton was a
fabrication. "Walking into a
lion's den in that way, walking in and knowing she was going to be
raped." He said evidence would
be called to refute claims by Mrs Nicholas that Rickards was sometimes in
uniform. He also questioned why
Mrs Nicholas would keep wearing for years the white muslin dress she says she
was wearing on the day of the alleged Rutland St incident. "A garment worn during
the most horrific experience of her life, she continues to wear it." He said Rickards denied
the allegations when he was first confronted with them in 1994 and gave
evidence in a court case involving another police officer in 1995, when the
claims were raised and denied. "His evidence
remains unchanged 12 years after he was first confronted with it and 20 years
after the first allegations," Mr Haigh said. The final witnesses to
give evidence in the Crown case yesterday were the three detectives who
arrested the three men on the charges. Detective Sergeant
Rodger Gray arrested Schollum, who told him he had already given his
statement to police and emphatically denied all the allegations. "I have never been
involved in the indecent assault or rape of a woman in my life." Detective Sergeant
Grant Johnstone arrested Shipton, who said he had already made a statement
denying the allegations but admitting he had normal consensual sex with Mrs
Nicholas. Detective Senior
Sergeant Stephen McGregor arrested Rickards, who said he had three things to
say: "Frankly, I am disgusted it has taken 14 months to get to this
position. I totally and vehemently refute the allegations made by Louise
Francis Nicholas. And because of the unfair way I have been treated in the
last 14 months, I am not prepared to say anything." |
