|
Allegations of abuse
by NZ Police |
|
|
peterellis
Home / police allegations / Rickards,
Shipton, Schollum vs Jane Doe Page 4 - Initial Reaction to
Not Guilty Verdict |
|
|
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 has been paid more
than $600,000 since he was stood down three years ago, continuing to receive
police perks while studying law at Auckland University. Estimated to be earning about
$200,000 a year, he was stood down in February 2004 -- three days after The
Dominion Post revealed allegations by Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas. He will remain suspended 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 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 as they might have had before they heard details of
their superior's sexual history and saw them bringing the force into
disrepute. Mr Waugh stood trial in 1998 on 21
counts of making fraudulent expense claims, including one charge involving
$1.19. His convictions were quashed by
the High Court in 2002 and he returned to the force in March 2004 and was
paid $1 million in compensation. Two years later, as part of his
agreed employment settlement, he retired. Mr Rickards revealed yesterday
that he had spent more than $500,000 defending himself on sex charges. Mr Rickards, who holds a master's
degree in public policy from One newspaper last year reported
he was enjoying a relaxed lifestyle, exercising early most days, lifting
weights at a local gym, and sometimes visiting the local Hound and Bull pub
for a rugby game, though he did not drink. Mr Rickards enjoyed a meteoric
rise through police ranks, from police cadet aged 18 in 1979, to undercover
cop within three years, to assistant commissioner and |
