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Allegations
of Sexual Abuse |
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Assistant commissioner
Clinton Rickards' denials that he is a rapist are too simplistic, dogmatic
and unbending to be believable, prosecutors say. The credibility of
Auckland's top policeman came under sustained attack as lawyers began final
arguments in the trial in the High Court at Auckland yesterday. Rickards and
former police officers Robert Schollum and Bradley Shipton are accused of
raping and sexually abusing Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas 20 years ago when
she was a teenager. Prosecutor Brent
Stanaway told the jury that it was Mrs Nicholas' evidence – rather than the
defendants' – that had "the ring of truth". Rickards, Shipton and
Schollum had abused an "unfortunate teenager" who was socially
unequipped to deal with their advances. They had counted on getting away with
it because of their standing. Mrs Nicholas was not
eloquent, cultured or educated, but "her evidence was compelling and at times
chilling. It had the ring of truth about it, and I suggest it was
powerful", Mr Stanaway said. "Remember the
anguish and the very real pain in her voice." Her demeanour and the
detail of her evidence – for example, the dirty smirk on Shipton's face as he
advanced with a police baton and a jar of vaseline – was not a performance,
he said. It was a woman who had waited 20 years to tell a jury what the men
had done to her. Though lengthy and
aggressive cross-examination had not swayed Mrs Nicholas from her core
allegations, Rickards had dogmatically stuck to "several mantras"
when on the stand, attacking others as liars. Over the years he had
treated his evidence at an earlier trial – given in support of another man
accused of abusing Mrs Nicholas – like a "security blanket" and
refused to deviate, to the point he would not give a straight answer to
straightforward questions, Mr Stanaway said. Rickards' suggestion
that Mrs Nicholas had phoned and invited him and Shipton to come over so she
could give oral sex while she had her period or an infection was
"preposterous". "In my submission
you will reject Rickards' evidence because it was simplistic, dogmatic,
unbending and unreliable." The defendants had been
sticking to a game plan since 1994 – that it was Mrs Nicholas who was
unreliable because she was a loose woman who loved policemen – and there had
been no serious challenge to their story in previous court hearings or police
interviews. In his closing argument
Mr Stanaway spent considerable time urging the jury to consider evidence from
Mrs Nicholas' former flatmate that seemed to contradict her. The prosecution did not
accept the flatmate's evidence and considered her unreliable to an extent as
she had initially lied to police and was uncertain about many details. The flatmate's claim
that it had been a fun time did not jell with her own later statement that
Shipton gave her the creeps and that she, in the end, shut herself in her
room to avoid having sex with the men. Mrs Nicholas had given
"proper" explanations as to why she did not fight back or tell
anyone about the abuse – she had been abused since she was 13. She had been unable to
stop the abuse in the past and was fearful that once again she would not be
believed. The defence lawyers will
make closing arguments today. |
