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Allegations
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Caption - Dominion
Post: Support: Clint Rickards (far right) arriving at court yesterday with
supporters including his wife, who appears to be carrying an overnight bag. Wellington - Jurors
considering the fate of Assistant Commissioner Clint Rickards and two former
police officers were yesterday told to put aside their own moral views on sex
to decide whether Louise Nicholas had been raped. After deliberating for
nine hours the jury of seven women and five men in the High Court at Auckland
retired just before 10pm and was sequestered to a hotel. The jurors were to
resume today at 9am to consider 20 sex abuse charges against Rickards,
Bradley Shipton and Robert Schollum. It was standing room
only in the court yesterday morning as Justice Tony Randerson summed up the
case on day 11 of the trial. Two hours after the
jurors started deliberating, they were back in court with questions for the
judge. They wanted information
that had not been directly covered in evidence, including whether police
officers owned their own uniforms. Justice Randerson said
witness Ray Sutton had said detectives were encouraged but not required to
own uniforms. Mrs Nicholas alleges
Rickards and Shipton visited her at her Corlett St flat in Rotorua between
six and 12 times in the mid-1980s for sexual intercourse and oral sex without
her consent. She had testified in
her evidence they sometimes wore their police uniforms and other times were
dressed in suits. Rickards and Shipton
told the court they had consensual sex with Mrs Nicholas but they were CIB
officers and were never dressed in police uniform. Mrs Nicholas also
alleged she was violated with a police baton, which left her bleeding for
days. Earlier yesterday,
Justice Randerson told the jurors to base their verdicts only on the evidence
presented in court, to put aside their moral views about sex and stay focused
on the law. The jury had to be sure
of the defendants' guilt to convict and each charge against each accused
required its own "mini trial" . A critical issue for
the jury was whether it found Mrs Nicholas to be both truthful and reliable
-- that she did not hold genuine but mistaken beliefs. There was no direct
evidence to corroborate her evidence but that was not required under the law.
Shipton and Schollum
had not given evidence but that could not be held against them. Rickards' own evidence
about his achievements as a police officer was primarily relevant to his
credibility and could be taken into account when considering whether he was
the type of person to commit the crimes alleged. "But good
character was not in itself a defence, as good people can fall from
grace," Justice Randerson said. |
