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Home / police allegations / Rickards,
Shipton, Schollum vs Jane Doe Page 5 - Further Reaction to
Not Guilty Verdict |
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The family of jailed former cop
Brad Shipton has accused Louise Nicholas of orchestrating a
"revenge-at-all-costs" vendetta to punish the men, who testified
against her in her first rape complaint against police. Shipton, suspended Assistant
Police Commissioner Clint Rickards and former Rotorua police officer Bob
Schollum were defence witnesses in the 1994 trial of a policeman charged with
raping Nicholas as a teenager in Murupara. After three trials - the first two
were aborted - he was acquitted. The trio attacked Nicholas'
credibility by testifying she had had group sex with them in 1985 and 1986,
allegations which later formed the basis of her high-profile rape complaint. The three were last week found not
guilty of kidnapping and sexually violating another Rotorua teenager in the
1980s, almost a year after they were also acquitted of the Nicholas charges. Rickards, who has been stood down
for three years, says his life and career is in tatters following the cases.
"Yes, my career has been destroyed. Yes, my life has been destroyed...
It's the impact on my family that's been the major issue for me." Louise Nicholas, meanwhile,
remains defiant. "Why would I lie about this, why would I make this
stuff up?" She says she is convinced more women will surface to support
her claims and says her focus is on changing police culture and ensuring a
better deal for rape victims. The alleged victims of the men
will not be able to take civil cases against them. Compensation law
specialist John Miller says there is a six-year limit on punitive damage
lawsuits, ruling the 1980s cases out. Meanwhile, the Shipton family
remains convinced Nicholas wanted payback and was prepared to go to any
lengths to get it. Brad Shipton's brother Greg, a former police officer of 16
years, says she was humiliated after her original rape complaint was thrown
out. When allegations resurfaced in 2004, she "made a meal out of
it" to hurt the men whose testimony had damaged her 1994 case. Nicholas rejected the allegation,
saying that while she was angry that Rickards, Schollum and Shipton had
appeared for the defence, it had not been the motivation for her later rape
complaint. Nicholas did not make a formal rape complaint against the trio in
the early 1990s but says she did speak to a police officer who refused to
take it further. After last week's verdict,
suppression orders were lifted in the case, revealing that Shipton and
Schollum were already serving jail sentences for the rape of a woman in Mt
Maunganui in the 1980s. Tauranga woman Donna Johnson has
also claimed that 10 years ago Shipton forced her to perform oral sex on him.
She claimed police never acted on her complaint. Greg Shipton told the Herald on
Sunday that the family was aware of that complaint but it was not credible.
"There's nothing in this. It's just more of the same." The family also wanted to dispel
perceptions of Shipton as a serial adulterer. In the 1980s there was a
different sense of morals and values, and group sex was far more accepted
than it was today, he said. Asked why Shipton's wife Sharon
had chosen to stand by him despite the numerous affairs, he said he was
unsure but offered one theory. "It's a lot easier to forgive
things that happened 23 years ago. It's a lot easier than coming home and
finding your bloke in the sack with someone else. "He has put everything to
her... They are at peace with each other. "The real victim is his
12-year-old daughter. She is the one growing up without a father... She heard
all this stuff about what an animal her father is, but she knows better. Brad
is finding it tough in prison, but he'll get through it." Greg Shipton claimed the biggest
mistake his brother made was not taking the Mt Maunganui rape complaint
"seriously enough". The allegations, he claimed, were so
far-fetched, he never thought they would be proven. "But he got nailed,
and it was so wrong. Those men didn't get a fair trial. The jury - I'm
convinced they knew of the connection to the Nicholas case. You know, Brad
was a good cop. Sure, he was bolshy and cocky, and he's not denying he was
unfaithful to his wife. But he's no monster." |
