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Allegations of abuse by
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peterellis homepage / police allegations / Louise
Nicholas vs John Dewar |
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John Dewar. Photo / Kenny Rodger A police notebook containing
crucial first-interview evidence of a woman's alleged sexual abuse at the
hands of three Rotorua police disappeared just after its contents were
discussed with a senior detective accused of covering up for the trio, a jury
heard yesterday. Former police inspector Raymond
Sutton told the High Court at Hamilton that he spoke with Louise Nicholas in
1993 - at the request of her father - about two incidents of sexual abuse
against her. Mrs Nicholas told Mr Sutton - then
a relieving senior sergeant - about being sexually abused by a former police
officer at Murupara in the early 1980s, then spoke of sexual abuse at the
hands of Rotorua officers Clint Rickards, Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum. She claimed to have been raped,
and sexually assaulted with a police baton. Mr Sutton said he took only
"very brief" notes of the interview in his armed offenders squad
notebook, as that meeting with Mrs Nicholas was not an actual complaint
interview. Later, after Mrs Nicholas decided
she wanted to go ahead with charges on both matters, he arranged for her to
have an official interview with a female detective. It was then he had a visit from
John Dewar, the then CIB chief. Dewar, 55 and now retired from the
police, faces four charges of attempting to defeat the course of justice. It is alleged that between January
1993 and 1995 he deliberately suppressed or failed to act on Mrs Nicholas's
complaint against the three men. He is also accused of twice giving
inadmissible, hearsay evidence at two trials for the alleged Murupara
offences. The man involved in that matter - who was not a police officer by
the time it got to court - was acquitted at a third trial. He has permanent
name suppression. Dewar faces a fourth charge after
allegedly manipulating Mrs Nicholas during a police investigation into his
evidence at the two Murupara trials. Mr Sutton told the court Dewar
wanted to take over the investigation of Mrs Nicholas's complaints as they
involved police officers. Mr Sutton said he mentioned to Dewar the
allegations against Rickards, Shipton and Schollum. He told the court he was happy to
hand the case to Dewar as he was the ranking officer at the station at the
time. Mr Sutton told Crown prosecutor
Brent Stanaway, QC, that in May 1993 he realised his notebook had disappeared. "I searched everywhere for
it. The last time I recall it was when I was briefing John Dewar." He was later asked to provide a
police jobsheet for the Murupara allegations, but left out reference to the
matters involving Shipton, Schollum and Rickards, as that was a separate
complaint. "I was never asked to record in a jobsheet anything about
those three." In other evidence yesterday, Mrs
Nicholas's mother, Barbara Crawford, said she watched as Dewar took a
statement from her daughter that included Mrs Nicholas's allegations against
Rickards, Shipton and Schollum. Dewar had taken notes throughout. Yesterday began with closing
cross-examination of Mrs Nicholas by Dewar's lawyer, Paul Mabey, QC. In it, Mrs Nicholas said that when
she laid the 1993 complaints, and until about mid 1995, she would have gone
"to the ends of the Earth" to help Dewar. She said she had signed a June
1995 statement - understood to have been authored by Dewar - saying she had
never raised with him the allegations against Rickards, Shipton and Schollum. But she claims now she would never
have signed the statement if she had read it properly, and signed it simply
to assist Dewar. The trial
is proceeding with 11 jurors after a female juror fell ill. |
