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Allegations
of Sexual Abuse |
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The news dropped like a
bomb. Louise Nicholas, mother of three, had accused one of the country's top
police officers, Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards, 45, and former
policemen Bradley Shipton, 53, and Robert Schollum, 47, of raping her six to
12 times, including with a police baton. From that moment the
lives of the complainant, the accused, their families and friends, police
officers and other rape complainants were turned on their head. The allegations rocked
the police to the core and prompted prime ministerial intervention. Within
days, Helen Clark announced a commission of inquiry. Police, who some years
before had investigated the same allegations, announced they were reopening
their investigation. Rickards was stood down. He has not been back to work
since, but has continued to receive his full salary, estimated to be about
$200,000 a year. Operation Austin, under
the control of Superintendent Nick Perry, reinvestigated the allegations. It
took a team of 20 detectives a year before deciding whether to lay charges.
It took a further year to bring the case to trial. That first year alone
involved 2000 interviews and cost police $1.6 million in staffing costs. The
commission of inquiry has cost more than $1.4 million. But the human cost is
harder to gauge. What angst has gone on behind closed doors? What secrets
revealed, events explained, promises made or broken since the news broke? For Mrs Nicholas, the
hardest thing was telling her story to her daughters, the youngest of whom
was nine at the time. Her husband broke down in court as he gave evidence. The three accused were
forced to confront their accuser and watch helplessly as versions of their
intimate past were shared with all of New Zealand. Their children, parents
and partners sat in court listening as their sex lives were detailed in cold,
intricate, grubby detail. The toll has also been
high on the team of detectives investigating the case. Some have spent months
away from their families. Mrs Nicholas had her
day in court, spending almost six hours in the stand telling her story over
and over. Shipton and Schollum
did not take the stand. A defiant Rickards did. "Louise Nicholas
is a liar," he told the court. He rebutted the prosecutor's suggestion
that he was in cahoots with the other accused, that they had concocted their
story. "There is no conflict when you tell the truth." It was a case that
intrigued the public, who watched it closely. Everyone had an opinion. But the one that counts
was the one delivered by the jury yesterday. |
