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Home / police allegations / Rickards,
Shipton, Schollum vs Jane Doe Page 2 - 2007 Trial of Rickards,
Shipton, Schollum Week 2 |
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Brad Shipton The wife of a former policeman
accused of indecent assault has been accused of lying to a court to give him
an alibi. In response to cross examination
at the High Court in Auckland by Crown prosecutor Brent Stanaway about
inconsistencies in her evidence, Sharon Shipton said the alleged victim had
given conflicting evidence as well. Mr Stanaway asked how she knew
this given the evidence was given in a closed court and the woman said her
husband, the accused Brad Shipton, 49, had told her. Mr Stanaway asked her what else
she had been conversing with her husband about. "He said: 'I cannot believe
how these lies are affecting our lives.' I've had that conversation almost
daily with him for two years. And that he loved me." Stanaway: "And did you say
you loved him?" Mrs Shipton: "Yes." Mr Stanaway: "And that you
were prepared to lie for him?" Mrs Shipton: "I never ever
said to my husband that I would lie for him." Shipton, Clint Rickards, 46, and
Bob Schollum, 54, deny charges of kidnapping the woman and indecently
assaulting her with a bottle in Rotorua sometime between November 1983 and
August 1984 when she was 16. Mrs Shipton
has said she and her husband were on a month-long holiday to Wanganui and
Wellington in February 1984, when it was alleged the offences took place. Crown prosecutor Brent Stanaway
said at most the Shiptons had stayed for three or four days, not a month
which was a recent fabrication. Mr Stanaway said Mrs Shipton had
called her cousin, who she had stayed with during the holiday, for the first
time in years after the complainant had testified last week. Mrs Shipton had not had contact
with her cousin for many years and "then suddenly out of the blue you
ring her, after the complainant gives evidence", he said. "It had nothing to do with
the complainant giving evidence," Mrs Shipton replied. "You rang her to say that she
might be contacted by the police." "It was one of the
reasons." "After years of
silence," Mr Stanaway said. Mrs Shipton denied asking her
cousin about dates of the stay in February 1984. "I did ask if she recalled us
staying with her in the month of February." Under further questioning Mrs
Shipton maintained her grandmother had been admitted to a resthome in
Wanganui in February 1984, around the time the couple had visited. Mr Stanaway produced statements
from Mrs Shipton's father and uncle, along with hospital records stating her
grandmother had had a stroke and had been admitted to the resthome prior to
1984. When asked if she accepted she was
wrong and her grandmother had been admitted to the resthome as early as
December 1982 , Mrs Shipton said she did not. Mr Stanaway said a letter sent
last week by Rickards' lawyer John Haigh to Wanganui Hospital asking for the
woman's health records showed how the defence team were working as one. After a recess a statement was
read out to the jury, saying the crown accepted the letter from Mr Haigh was
sent out without his knowledge and Mr Haigh only knew it about it after it
was sent and he had told his secretary it was entirely
"inappropriate". Mr Stanaway asked at what point
she had decided she would give evidence about the holiday in Wanganui in
February, 1984. "I did not decide, it was in
conjunction with my husband's lawyer." Mr Stanaway repeated to her that
at most the Shiptons had stayed for a week in Wanganui. "I know you put that Mr
Stanaway, I totally reject it." "This evidence of a month
away from Rotorua is just a jack-up," he replied. "A recent fabrication on your
behalf, after hearing the evidence of the complainant," he said. The "jack-up has only been
implemented in the last few days," he said. "Mr Stanaway the statements
you have put to me are the jack-up." "At any time have you come
forward to the police or Crown, to say "my husband was in Wanganui in
February 1984 for most of the month"?" he asked. Mrs Shipton replied: "I would
never approach the Operation Austin [police investigating historic sexual
allegations] team or crown to assist in any way. "I've seen, read and heard
what is the most shameful, unethical, unprofessional conduct of that
team." Mrs Shipton said she knew when she
testified on Thursday the investigation team would have been "running
around, possibly the world trying to prove I am a liar. I am not." Under re-examination by Shipton's
lawyer Bill Nabney, Mrs Shipton said she would not admit she was wrong about
when her grandmother had been admitted to the resthome. The trial adjourned early and is
expected to continue tomorrow morning with two more crown witnesses. Schollum has elected not to call
witnesses. |