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Allegations of abuse
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peterellis
Home / police allegations / Rickards,
Shipton, Schollum vs Jane Doe Page 6 - Further Reaction to
Not Guilty Verdict |
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The Police Complaints Authority is
to review how an investigation into claims of sexual abuse by police officers
in the 1980s, was run. Suspended Assistant Police
Commissioner Clint Rickards and two former officers were found not guilty on
Thursday of kidnapping and indecently assaulting a woman in Rotorua between
November 1983 - August 1984. The complainant was aged 16 at the time. It was the third in a series of
trials involving police officers. Mr Rickards has described the
police investigation known as Operation Austin, into complaints from several
women, as a shambles, and insists he should be reinstated. He was quoted in a weekend
newspaper as claiming that witnesses were coached and that police overlooked
inconsistencies in complainants' evidence. It has also emerged that a former
detective who originally investigated Ms Nicholas's allegations, will face
trial for conspiring to pervert the course of justice. John Dewar is due to
go on trial later this year. Police Headquarters says it does
not feel any need to comment on Mr Rickard's accusations about Operation
Austin. The Police Complaints Authority
will not confirm whether it has received a complaint from Mr Rickards. But Investigations manager, Allan
Galbraith, says it has been monitoring the investigation in anticipation of
complaints from both sides, and the inquiry is set to resume. The Police say they are dealing
with Mr Rickard's employment case through an external tribunal, which will report
its recommendations to the Police Commissioner in due course. Last year, a jury cleared the
three of 20 charges of sexual violation and indecent assault against Rotorua
woman Louise Nicholas in 1986. The jury of seven women and five
men delivered its verdict on 31 March 2006 after three days of deliberations
following a 2.5-week trial at the High Court in Following the latest acquittals by
a jury of eight men and four women in the High Court at Suppression orders were lifted,
revealing Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum were two of four men sent to prison
for eight years in 2005 for the abduction and rape of a woman in Mt Maunganui
in 1989.
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