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Allegations
of Sexual Abuse |
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It took 20 years for
Louise Nicholas to get her day in court. That was too long, but the justice
system has finally worked in the way that it should in a democratic society
-- in the open and according to the rule of law. That the three men she
had accused of raping her were acquitted does not mean it was wrong that the
issue went to court. The reality is that there was little alternative. The New Zealand system
has been sorely tested by the events which took place in Rotorua in 1985 to
1986. That was inevitable. A
rape case in which one of the accused was a man tipped as a future police
commissioner was always going to be fraught with difficulties. The position police
hold in society is one of legal privilege. They are given powers that other
citizens do not have, but with those powers comes a responsibility to uphold
the highest of standards. Police actions,
especially when dealing with claimed misdeeds in its own ranks, must be above
suspicion and display objectivity, fairness and professionalism. That Prime Minister
Helen Clark felt compelled to set up a commission of inquiry into the
standards and codes of personal behaviour and sexual conduct of police
officers is evidence enough that these issues, which are inextricably linked
to police culture, cannot be treated lightly. However, there can be
no complaint with the way that police have handled events since this newspaper
first aired Mrs Nicholas' claims on January 31, 2004. Operation Austin, under
the control of Superintendent Nick Perry, reinvestigated the allegations. A
team of 20 detectives was involved, and it took a year before it was decided
to lay charges, and another year before the case went to trial. The case has used
thousands of hours of police time and cost millions of dollars but the price
of anything less than the most thorough of investigations would have been an
understandable loss of trust in the police. More long-lasting are
the non-financial costs of this case for both Mrs Nicholas and the
defendants. The anguish on the witness stand of Mrs Nicholas was obvious as
she told her story. However, so too was Clint Rickards' outrage as he
defended his reputation. He had been stood down
from his role as assistant police commissioner for the two years of the
investigation and had his life put on hold. Nor can the trial have been easy
for the other two accused, Bradley Shipton and Robert Schollum. The case was a
difficult one for the jury to decide. That much is evident from the 27 hours
it took to reach its verdicts. As both the prosecution and the defence
acknowledged, the case came down in the end to whether they believed Mrs
Nicholas that she was raped, or the defence version that the sex had been
consensual. To re-create events
that occurred in Rotorua in 1986 in an Auckland court room in 2006 was never
going to be an easy task. Memories fade over 20 years and the details become
hazy. When this newspaper
first published Mrs Nicholas' allegations more than two years ago, we said
that we believed that the rights and wrongs of this matter deserved to be
decided in a court. That is what should
have happened and, finally, that is what has happened. |
