Allegations of abuse by
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Home / police allegations / Rickards,
Shipton, Schollum vs Jane Doe Page 1 - 2007 Trial of
Rickards, Shipton, Schollum Week 1 |
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BILL KEARNS/Dominion Post KIDNAP DENIAL: The lawyer for
Clint Rickards says his client did not know the complainant before the
alleged attack, 'did not know her at the time and does not know her after'. A teenage girl was taken screaming
and struggling to a bedroom, handcuffed to a bed and indecently assaulted
with a bottle by three policeman, the High Court in Suspended Assistant Police
Commissioner Clint Rickards and former policemen Brad Shipton and Bob
Schollum heard the allegations on the first day of their trial yesterday. Rickards, Shipton and Schollum all
pleaded not guilty to one charge each of kidnapping – by confining – and one
charge each of the indecent assault of the teenager with a bottle. The offences are alleged to have
occurred between November 1983 and August 1984 in Rotorua. The men were acquitted in March
last year of raping Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas also in the 1980s. The latest trial is cloaked by suppression
orders and many details of last year's trial also remain suppressed. In brief opening remarks from
defence lawyers for each of the three men, all denied the incident ever
happened. The men's lawyers all claim the
complainant was lying about the attack and Rickards' lawyer John Haigh said
his client did not even know the girl. "(He) did not know this
woman, he did not know her before, did not know her at the time and he does
not know her after." Crown Prosecutor Mark Zarifeh told
the jury of eight men and four women that the teenager had been in a
consensual sexual relationship with Shipton at the time of the alleged
assault. Mr Zarifeh told the court the
teenager had arrived at a house in Rotorua to find the three accused, along
with two other men, drinking. After being handed a drink by
Shipton, the crown said the men started to joke about having sex with the
teenager. When she told them this would not
happen, Shipton allegedly said "she won't go willing" to the men. The teenager was then picked up by
several of the men and taken screaming and struggling to a bedroom, he told
the jury. The teenager was thrown on to a
bed and Shipton then got on top of her, straddling her, he said. Schollum and Rickards were on
either side of the teenager next to the bed, Mr Zarifeh said. The two other men were in the
room, one near the door and the other pacing around the room. Shipton then produced handcuffs
and gave them to the other men who handcuffed her to the bed. Schollum and Rickards told the teenager
"don't fight it". A bottle was produced and inserted
into the teenager. "(She) was in agony and
screaming out to stop," Mr Zarifeh said. Schollum told the men the teenager
had had enough and the assault ended. All the men left the room except for
Schollum who told the teenager not to tell anyone. The girl left the house, in pain,
but did not see a doctor, the court was told. Mr Zarifeh said days later
Schollum told her he wanted her to go with him but she refused. There had been no further contact
between the two since. The woman, whose identity is
suppressed, this afternoon told the court how she had met and socialised with
the three men. The woman told the court she had
met Shipton and had a relationship with him and met Rickards and Schollum
through their friendship with Shipton. The woman said she would drink,
underage, at Rotorua's Cobb and Co restaurant and the three men would often
come in. The men also were frequent
visitors to a restaurant where she worked across the road from the police
station, she said. The woman is expected to continue
giving evidence today. Two weeks has been set down for
the trial. |