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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Helen Clark The Law Commission is to review
whether juries should know about a defendant's previous convictions. The issue has been put in the
spotlight by the police rape trials, and Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday
said she thought it "needs to be looked at". "I think the debate over this
trial means that inevitably that issue will have to be looked at - and the
consequences of that are not clear cut," she said. Last week it was revealed that
former police officers Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton were convicted rapists
already serving prison sentences when they stood trial for the kidnapping and
indecent assault of a Rotorua woman in 1984. The pair and Assistant Police
Commissioner Clint Rickards were acquitted when that trial ended last week. But when suppression orders in force
during the case were lifted a public debate was triggered about whether the
jury should have known about the previous convictions. Law Commission president Sir
Geoffrey Palmer yesterday said he would be "delighted" to look into
the matter. "This is something of public
moment, and it is of public concern," he said. "There are long-established
principles of the law. We would have to look at what the appropriate policy
is and we will do that." Helen Clark yesterday said most
New Zealanders would have been shocked to hear about Shipton and Schollum's
convictions. She suggested to Newstalk ZB that
one of the problems with the current arrangement was that some accused might
paint themselves as family men in a trial. When the full story came out after
a not-guilty verdict people could feel uncomfortable. But that needed to be balanced
against the right of the person accused of a crime to a fair trial. "That's a much more complex
legal issue than I have the information to form an opinion about at this
point," the Prime Minister said. But she said the issue had been so
controversial in recent days that "one feels almost bound to take the
matter further". |