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Allegations of abuse
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Home / police allegations / Rickards,
Shipton, Schollum vs Jane Doe Page 4 - Initial Reaction to
Not Guilty Verdict |
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Suspended Assistant Police
Commissioner Clint Rickards has vowed to be back at work soon, but he faces
an uphill battle winning back the support of frontline police and the public.
Employment law expert Peter Cullen
said Mr Rickards, acquitted yesterday in a second police sex case alongside
two former colleagues, had been "very unwise" to publicly label the
investigation and prosecution effort against him a shambles. Outside court after the verdict
was read, Mr Rickards said Operation Austin was "a shambles and a poorly
run operation, poorly run." This criticism was directed at
members of the same police force he says he wishes to return to. Mr Rickards will remain suspended,
as he has been for three years, while police sort through employment issues. Deputy Police Commissioner Rob
Pope said this would take "some time" but police would move as
quickly as possible. Mr Pope said the allegations
against Mr Rickards were very serious and had been of concern to all police.
"The last three years have been a difficult time for everyone concerned
- for the complainant, the defendant and his family and the police inquiry
team," he said. Mr Cullen said Mr Rickards'
comments about looking forward to returning to work as soon as possible could
be seen as either putting pressure on police to have him return to his role
as assistant commissioner, or, possibly setting the stage for negotiating an
exit package. But his attack on the
investigation team appeared damaging to either approach. Mr Rickards has been paid over
$600,000 since he was stood down, continuing to receive police perks while studying
law at Mr Rickards, estimated to be
earning around $200,000 a year, was stood down in February 2004 - three days
after The Dominion Post revealed allegations by Rotorua woman Louise
Nicholas. Though he was not allowed to work,
he kept his rank and continues to receive the pay and perks that were part of
his employment conditions, including a police-issue Holden Commodore - with
the police radios removed. He enjoyed a meteoric rise through
police ranks, from police cadet aged 18 in 1979, to undercover cop within
three years, to assistant commissioner and Mr Cullen said that, if Mr
Rickards was reinstated, the one-time high-flying Maori policing role model
would find it difficult to resume his leadership position within the police. Fellow police officers, and the Veteran lawyer Rob Moodie, who
represented former senior police officer Alec Waugh in a bitter employment
case, said reinstated police were traditionally ostracised on their return to
the force. They were not taken into
confidence by superiors and would be cut out of conversations. Junior police
did not have the same respect for them after they heard details of their
superior's sexual history and saw them bringing the force into disrepute. "I think Mr Rickards can
expect much the same treatment. It will be very difficult for him. It's
always difficult for anybody to have a shadow cast over their personal
qualities." Mr Rickards has not received any
legal aid and revealed yesterday that he had spent more than $500,000
defending himself on sex charges. Before this trial started, Shipton
and Schollum, who both left the police in the 1990s, had received legal aid
worth nearly $250,000 defending the Louise Nicholas case and other costs. |
