Allegations of Abuse by NZ Police
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	Newswire March 9 2007; 06:41 Protests Over Outcome Of Police Sex Trials More than six-hundred people protested in Auckland and Wellington last night to vent their anger at the outcome of last week's police sex trial. The marches were held to mark International Women's Day. While the Auckland march remained peaceful, protesters in Wellington blocked the street outside the central police station. Many carried posters with messages referring to the acquittal last week of Suspended Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards and two former officers on charges of kidnapping and indecently assaulting a woman in Rotorua between November 1983 - August 1984. The complainant was aged 16 at the time. Following the acquittals by a jury of eight men and four women in the High Court at Auckland, it was revealed the two former policemen were convicted rapists who are still serving jail terms for the abduction and rape of a woman in Mt Maunganui in 1989. The protesters were confronted by a line of female officers barring the entrance to the police station. Later, outside the High Court, an effigy of a police officer was burned and the words “Justice for Rape Survivors”; sprayed in red paint on the court doors. The group dispersed soon after 8pm. No arrests were made at either demonstration. 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 two and a half-week trial at the High Court in Auckland.