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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A scathing poster campaign is underway
in The poster mimics the current
police recruitment campaign poster, based on the theme of getting better work
stories. It invites people to join the police to hear great rape
stories. In some places around the city the
official police posters have been ripped down and replaced, and in others the
mock poster has been pasted over the official ones. The poster directs people to a
non-existent website and also to an 0800 phone number, which goes through to
an apparently unrelated Rotorua holiday park. Police National Headquarters says
the campaign is more offensive to victims than it is to police. Superintendent Grant O'Fee says
they have been heartened by the support they have received by members of the
public. He says police are appealing to
the wider Minister of Police Annette King
says it is an appalling slur on thousands of good and honest Kiwis who police
King says she is disturbed by the
ugly and vicious poster that appeared at National Party police spokesman
Chester Borrows says it is hugely unfair to taint 7,500 police officers with
the actions of three or four. He points out an independent and
objective report into the integrity of police is due out soon. On Monday the prime minister
warned the report makes extremely bad reading. The inquiry was set up three years
ago when Louise Nicholas publicly accused Assistant Police Commissioner Clint
Rickards and two former police officers of historic sex crimes. They were
acquitted on grounds the sex was consensual. Helen Clark says the police will
have hard questions to answer when the report is released in a few weeks. However a constitutional law
expert believes Hodge says we have got a jury
system for a good reason and having the prime minister attack it does not
help its integrity. Rickards says he wants to resume
his role as Auckland District Police Commander, but a former police officer
and MP believes he will have a tough time regaining his job. Ian Revell was in the force during
the 1980s and says police are more scrutinised than other sectors. He says he
was unaware of a police culture of sexual excess when he was working. Revell says excess use of alcohol
and promiscuous behaviour amongst single people was common, but group sex
involving police officers certainly was not. He says he feels sorry for
Rickards, as even though he has been acquitted on all charges his high
profile means he is unlikely to get his job back. Rickards says his pride will be
lost if he is not reinstated. He told TV3's 60 Minutes programme
on Monday it would be humiliating if he was not allowed his job back as it is
a matter of pride. Rickards says the two trials have
destroyed his life, his career, and left him broke, but the impact on his
family has been the worst. He says he had consensual sex with
Nicholas who he described as a flirt in the 1980s, which he says he is
ashamed of as he was married with two children at the time. But he maintains
he has never met the woman who took him to court in the most recent trial. |