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Allegations
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Louise Nicholas arrived
home in Rotorua yesterday with no regrets after losing her headline-making
rape case. Speaking outside her
in-laws' home, the 36-year-old said: "You just do what you believe in. "It's onwards and
upwards from here." Nicholas, joined at the
house by husband Ross and their two young children, has been overwhelmed by
cards and letters of support from around the country during the controversial
trial. "I would just like
to thank my family, friends and supporters," she told Sunday News. Nicholas had earlier
revealed through a family spokesman how she was "feeling as anyone would
in her situation" one day after a jury of seven women and five men
dismissed her allegations of rape and sexual abuse against assistant police
commissioner Clint Rickards and former policemen, Brad Shipton and Bob
Schollum. On Friday, the three
men were acquitted on all 20 charges after a three-week hearing in the
Auckland high court. Nicholas had claimed
they had raped her and sexually abused her, once with a police baton, while
she was an 18-year-old in Rotorua in 1985 and 1986. Nicholas said the
prolonged saga had been tough on her and her family, but she did not regret
laying her complaints. Nicholas was determined
to get through with help from loved ones. But she said she had
endured an agonising wait as the jury of seven women and five men deliberated
for 26 hours before returning their not guilty verdicts. "It was
unbelievable. But all we could do was wait. We had no idea whether it would
be good or bad," Nicholas said. Nicholas had told the
court she could not say no to the three accused at the times of their alleged
sex attacks because they were policemen who intimidated her and she was
scared of them. But, in their defence,
the trio said she lied. They said the alleged
incident with a police baton never happened and although they had had group
sex with her, it was consensual and not against her will. Outside the court on
Friday, after his acquittal, Rickards told of the "torture" of the
last 30 months since the inquiry began. "This has been the
worst nightmare you could ever imagine," he said, his arm around partner
Tania Eden. "One thing that
has pulled me through has been my whanau." Rickards, 45, an
assistant commissioner, has been suspended from the police on full pay since
the inquiry began but discussions about his future were expected to take some
time. Rickards' lawyer, John
Haigh QC, yesterday declined to comment about the case. "I'd rather not.
He's not saying anything and I don't think I can add anything to that,"
Haigh told Sunday News. Shipton's brother Craig
said the trial had brought sickness and grief to the family. "Thanks for giving
us the strength to get through this. It just goes to show the justice system
does work," he said during a karakia outside the courtroom. Another brother, Greg
Shipton, said the inquiry had been a $10 million persecution and somebody
needed to look into it. Howard Russell, the
father of Schollum's wife Caron, said his daughter had "been to hell and
back. "We are just glad
it is all over," he said. |
