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Allegations of abuse
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peterellis homepage / police allegations / Louise
Nicholas vs John Dewar |
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John Dewar, who was in charge of
the Rotorua CIB and handled Louise Nicholas' rape accusation, denies he tried
to obstruct or defeat the course of justice. Photo / Greg Bowker Secrecy shrouding key evidence in
Louise Nicholas' claims of pack rape by policemen has been lifted - revealing
the man who originally investigated the allegations is charged with
attempting to obstruct or defeat the course of justice. Former detective inspector John
Dewar, who denies the charges, led the Rotorua CIB and handled Ms Nicholas'
accusation that she was pack raped by Clint Rickards, Brad Shipton and Bob
Schollum between September 1985 and December 1986. The men said the sex was
consensual and were acquitted after a High Court trial last year. The trio
were also acquitted this week of kidnapping and of indecently assaulting a
woman with a whisky bottle. Shipton and Schollum are in jail
for the kidnapping and rape of a woman at Mt Maunganui. The 1989 assault
included violation with a police baton. Suppression orders lifted
yesterday allow the Weekend Herald to publish evidence about the use of
police batons by Shipton and Schollum during sex sessions. Ms Nicholas alleged that Shipton
approached her with a baton and a pot of Vaseline after she was raped by all
three men. She said she told him, "No f
... no way." "The bedroom wall was there
and I could go no further, I couldn't go anywhere, he had this dirty smirk on
his face, this smirk." The jury in the trial heard from
four secret witnesses, three former police officers who can now be identified
and a woman who has continued name suppression. John Donald, a former police
officer who was stationed in Rotorua in the 1980s, said Shipton had told him
"he [Shipton] and Rickards ... had been with a sheila, they had even
used a baton on her, and that she was gagging for it". Shipton told him the woman was
aged 17. Another former police officer,
Kevin Tunnell, said that Shipton told him in June or July of 1983 that he had
used his police baton in the course of sexual activity with a woman or women
at a party the previous night. Mr Tunnell said he was left with
the impression that the baton had been used as a sex aid and that four or
five people were present at the time. The third witness, John Reynolds,
a former police officer who worked in Rotorua between 1982 and June 1984,
spoke of using a police baton in a group sex session with Schollum and a
young woman they had met in a bar. Another witness, who has continued
name suppression, gave evidence that she had consensual threesomes with
Shipton and Schollum during 1983-84, and a police baton was used on one
occasion. In pre-trial judgement, Justice
Tony Randerson ruled the baton evidence was of value, and he did not believe
it would prejudice the defence. "The distinctive
characteristics of the behaviour of which these witnesses depose is that it
involves joint sexual activity by two serving police officers featuring the
use of a police baton. "That this kind of activity
is sufficiently unusual or distinctive is emphasised by the reactions of some
of the witnesses who were so repulsed by what they were told that they had a
clear recollection of the relevant conversations." Shipton and Schollum denied using
a police baton in the way alleged. Justice Randerson said the
importance of that challenged baton evidence "is that it tends to show
that each of them did, on occasions, indulge in sexual activity with the use
of a police baton. "That tends to support the
complainants' evidence that activity of this kind did occur and tends to
discredit the denials by Messrs Schollum and Shipton of the occurrence of
conduct of this kind." The evidence would support Ms
Nicholas' account, "leaving the issue of whether that occurred without
consent for determination upon all the evidence". Justice Randerson said the trial
jury would need to be told the evidence was only against the accused involved
in the respective conversations outlined by the witnesses. Justice Randerson said it would
need to be made clear to the jury that none of the accounts were evidence
that Mr Rickards engaged in activities with a baton, "except to the
extent that it might support the complainant's account of what
happened". The Court of Appeal found that
evidence about use of police batons "should be confined to the support
it provides for Ms Nicholas' evidence that Messrs Shipton and Schollum used a
baton in the course of group sex with her". The baton evidence should be
"disregarded" when considering if Mr Rickards was involved in such
activity. Evidence of baton use was never
raised in the latest trial. Dewar's trial will take place
later this year. |
