KEY POINTS:
Brad and Sharon Shipton's 30-year marriage is over.
A home video allegedly showing the former police officer and convicted rapist engaging in group sex was the "final straw" for 52-year-old Sharon Shipton and last week she decided to end the marriage.
"I have made this decision and now myself and my daughter must pick ourselves up and get on with our lives," she said in a statement to the Herald on Sunday.
A family friend said 48-year-old Brad Shipton - serving eight-and-a-half years' jail for the rape of a woman in Mt Maunganui in 1989 - was "devastated" when the news was broken to him at Kaitoke Prison last week.
Sharon Shipton played the role of devoted wife through three high-profile sex trials, staunchly defending her husband despite his acknowledgement of numerous affairs and his involvement in group sex sessions with young women.
However, it was last week's claims that Shipton had taken part in consensual group sex with Tauranga woman Debbie Gerbich, her then police detective husband Warren Gerbich and another former officer, that forced her finally to say enough was enough.
Nevertheless, for the sake of their 12-year-old daughter, she said, she would continue to visit Shipton in prison.
"My daughter loves her father very much and Brad equally adores his daughter. I will not pull away from our prison visits, as such visits mean so much to them both," she said.
Friends spoken to by the Herald on Sunday said Sharon Shipton's public declaration that the marriage was over would now allow her the freedom to move on with her life. She had been a target for criticism and ridicule since Shipton was first accused of rape by Louise Nicholas in 2004.
Brad Shipton was only 18 and working as a lineman for the Electricity Board when the couple married in 1977. In the early 1980s the keen bodybuilder joined the police force where he became the focus of female attention. Group sex sessions followed with other officers, including suspended assistant police commissioner Clint Rickards and former officer Bob Schollum.
After leaving the police in the early 1990s Shipton moved into the hospitality industry, buying into several Tauranga bars. He also won a spot on the Tauranga District Council.
In 2004 Shipton, Schollum and Rickards were thrown into the spotlight with claims they had raped Louise Nicholas several times in Rotorua, sometimes in police uniform. The case went to trial and last March the trio were found not guilty of 20 charges of rape, indecent assault and sexual violation.
That case sparked a commission of inquiry into police misconduct, the findings of which are now with the Governor-General and due for public release this week.
However, what the public didn't know was that Shipton and Schollum were already in prison after being found guilty in 2005 of the rape of a woman at Mt Maunganui. Shipton was accused of violating the complainant with a police baton.
Those convictions were also kept from the jury in February's police trial involving a then Rotorua teenager.
Sharon Shipton testified for her husband at that trial. But even from behind bars Shipton could not escape the spotlight - or the sexual encounters of his past. From his jail cell at Kaitoke Prison he learned a week ago a home video had been released to the media allegedly showing him participating in group sex in 2001 with fellow ex-police officers.
A friend told the Herald on Sunday Shipton was upset about the videotape and was "doing it tough" in prison.
