|
Allegations of abuse
by NZ Police |
|
|
peterellis
Home / police allegations / Rickards,
Shipton, Schollum vs Jane Doe Page 5 - Further Reaction to
Not Guilty Verdict |
|
|
Suspended assistant police
commissioner Clint Rickards has spoken for the first time of his shame over
his past behaviour - but says while he can be accused of being a
"tomcat", he's no rapist. In the first exclusive in-depth
interview since allegations were laid against him by Rotorua woman Louise
Nicholas in 2004, Rickards has admitted: "I'm not proud of some of the
things I've done and I make no excuses for them. A lot of it was my fault. I
did things I'm ashamed of, given I was in a relationship and had two young kids,
but I'm no rapist. "I've never used violence
against a woman... a violent person does that sort of thing, that's a
sadistic thing to do." The most he is guilty of, he says,
is infidelity. When he learnt Nicholas's allegations would be published, he rang
his former partner to tell her he'd slept around. She told him he was
"an arsehole". Rickards had only bitter
condemnation for Nicholas, saying if he ran into her now: "I would be
physically sick. She would need to go away... the damage she has done to me
personally and my family..." The last time he spoke to her was
about 1987 - more than a year after the alleged rapes - when he was among
police called to a noisy party in Rotorua. "She was drunk as a skunk.
She planted a kiss on me." Rickards, suspended on full pay,
is fighting for reinstatement as Rickards' shattered reputation and
vituperous post-trial outburst in which he castigated the police
investigators and restated his support for co-accused convicted rapists Bob
Schollum and Brad Shipton, makes reinstatement unlikely. Fresh allegations about his sexual
behaviour surfaced yesterday when the NZ Herald reported that Rickards had
consensual sex with a woman on the bonnet of a police car in 1983. And TV One
reported on Friday night that another woman, Donna Johnson, claimed Shipton
had used her vulnerability as a victim of incest to force her to perform oral
sex on him 12 years ago. Police employment proceedings have
begun against Rickards, but his lawyer John Haigh QC declined to discuss them
other than to say Rickards would defend any internal disciplinary charges.
"He is aware of the (latest) allegation, which he denies and regards as
ludicrous." Rickards said yesterday the media
were keeping the story alive to justify their ongoing attacks on him.
"Who has courted the media for the last few years and who has come
unstuck? Certain parts of the media have pinned their coat-tails to that and
now they're coming unstuck." He said he did not know why he was
being judged so harshly by the public and said those without sin should cast
the first stone. "How many juries does a man
have to go through? How many times does a man have to be persecuted?" He did not resile from his public
support of Schollum and Shipton, whom he said were innocent and should not be
in jail. Rickards claims police culture has
not changed since the 1980s. "The difference is that in the '80s the
focal point for a lot of police was the police bar, but that's not the case
now." Of his arrest in March 2005,
Rickards said: "It was the lowest day of my life. I was so ashamed that
it had happened to me and my family. It was just devastating." He reveals he made a calculated
decision to change his appearance for the Nicholas trial. At an earlier court
appearance, much had been made of his intimidating size - he is 185cm and
125kg - and goatee beard. So come March 13 last year, he was clean shaven and
had lost weight. "John Haigh is a staunch
supporter of the judiciary and the justice system, but I'm not so sure. When
I have to lose 20kg so I don't appear too menacing... should it be based on
looks and how you appear... or on the evidence before you?" He had borrowed heavily to afford
the $600,000 battle to clear his name. Police bosses had pressured him to
resign days before the Nicholas allegations became public in January 2004. Rickards describes his sense of
betrayal after his mentor and friend, former police commissioner Rob Robinson,
sent deputy commissioner Steve Long to try to convince him to resign.
Rickards said he was gobsmacked: "What happened to innocent until proven
guilty?" Suppression orders were lifted on
Friday on the evidence of four secret witnesses in last year's Louise
Nicholas trial - three of them former police - who told of police batons
being used during sex with other women. Nicholas claimed she was raped with
one. After Wednesday's acquittals,
suppressions were also lifted on the fact of Shipton and Schollum's
conviction 18 months ago for raping a woman in Mt Maunganui in 1989, and
their sentences of 812 years and eight years respectively. That victim had come forward when
she learned of Nicholas's story. The Court of Appeal had ordered
the Nicholas allegations be tried separately from those of the complainant in
the latest trial, despite the remarkable similarity. The Nicholas jury did
hear from the other woman, but Nicholas could not be a witness for her. |
