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A woman who provided counselling
to Louise Nicholas has told a jury how she became uncomfortable at the close
relationship between Mrs Nicholas and John Dewar. Dewar, 55, the former Rotorua CIB
head, is on trial at the High Court in Hamilton on four charges of attempting
to obstruct or defeat the course of justice. The charges relate to the
investigation into claims by Mrs Nicholas she was sexually assaulted by
police in Rotorua the 1980s. Margaret Craig provided
counselling to Mrs Nicholas on 20 occasions between September 1993 and July
1995. Yesterday, Mrs Craig told the
court how Dewar dropped Mrs Nicholas off at counselling about six times,
which she found unusual. Dewar's actions at a meeting with
Mrs Nicholas and Mrs Craig in November 1993 surprised the counsellor. "My lasting impression of
that meeting was my surprise when John Dewar talked about consensual sex Louise
had with a number of police officers and it surprised me he was using that
term," she said. Mrs Craig later phoned Dewar to
warn him about the amount of time he was spending with Mrs Nicholas. "I expressed my concern that
he was spending so much time with Louise. "I felt he was very heavily
involved with her and what was happening around her. "I felt that someone of his
seniority should be aware of the risks of getting as close as he seemed to be
to Louise Nicholas." Earlier, the jury heard evidence
from a second district court judge of how Dewar gave inadmissable evidence in
the 1993 Rotorua District Court trial of a police officer charged with sex
offences against Mrs Nicholas in Murupara. When Dewar gave evidence in the
trial he told the court of another police officer who had said he would lie
to help the accused. Judge David McDonald, who acted as
Crown prosecutor in the trial, said the evidence caused "grave
problems" and he was not surprised the trial was subsequently aborted.
"It was hearsay, and what were the jury to make of that comment? "The moment it was said, I
knew what was going to happen." When Judge McDonald later asked Dewar
why he had given that evidence, Dewar said he wanted to "get the game
back on a level playing field". When Dewar also caused the second
trial to be aborted, this time by telling the court of allegations into
sexual offending against Mrs Nicholas by Clint Rickards, Brad Shipton and Bob
Schollum, Judge McDonald said he became angry, both at the mistrial and Dewar's
reaction to it. "I was extremely angry that
this had occurred again, almost at an identical part of the trial. "His (Dewar's) reaction was
cavalier, along the lines of `these things happen, you shouldn't get upset
about it'." The officer was acquitted at a
third trial and given permanent name suppression. Judge Leslie Atkins earlier gave
evidence in the trial against Dewar, which is before Justice Hansen and is
expected to run into next week. |
