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Allegations of abuse
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Home / police allegations / Rickards,
Shipton, Schollum vs Jane Doe Page 6 - Further Reaction to
Not Guilty Verdict |
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Clint Rickards, the suspended
assistant police commissioner accused of rape, finally seems to get it. In a frank interview over the
weekend, he admitted he had made mistakes in his past. "I'm not proud of
some of the things I've done and I make no excuses for them," he told
the Sunday Star-Times. "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." It turns out, from two trials
involving two different complainants, that what he did in his past was not
illegal. But as Rickards now knows, it does not make it acceptable. With the veil of secrecy finally
lifted from most of the so-called police rape saga, an enormous amount of
scrutiny has gone and will continue to go on Rickards and his fellow accused,
Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum. The latter pair, we now all know, are in jail
serving time for rape. They have been there since before the Louise Nicholas
trial and right through to the latest case that concluded in That such key information was
withheld from both juries is the cause of much debate. Would the outcome from
the Nicholas and last week's Which just proves how vital it was
the 12 jury members in both trials were kept in the dark. They went away and
analysed hours of legal argument, looked the accused and the accusers in the
eye, and weighed up the evidence. Frankly, there wasn't enough to
convict and both juries appear to have made the right decision. Trying to
prove events from 20-odd years ago was always going to be fraught - and so it
proved. Suppression orders and a block on
criminal backgrounds are there for a reason: to help juries decide cases on
fact. That's something to remember for those misguided enough to try and
reveal the Shipton/Schollum convictions after the Nicholas trial. Their
pamphlet drops could have aborted last week's With the system shown to be up to
the mark, the focus will now go on whether Rickards should get his top job
back. The court cases have shown -
particularly the Nicholas one - a tacky, sordid and sometimes shocking story
of sexual deeds. Contrary to what Rickards' legal counsel might believe,
group sex is not common, nor has it ever been. Taking someone on the bonnet
of a police car, as new allegations claimed over the weekend, is also not
sound moral behaviour. Should someone with a background
even they are ashamed of lead our police force? No. Rickards, by
acknowledging his shame, may be coming to that conclusion. He is innocent in the eyes of the
law. Morally, he is not. |
