There are calls for Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards, who is still being paid, to be sacked. Photo / Kenny Rodger
There are calls for Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards, who is still being paid, to be sacked. Photo / Kenny Rodger
KEY POINTS:
A campaign has started to have suspended assistant police commissioner Clint Rickards sacked, but the Government has given assurances the issue will soon be resolved.
Postcards were distributed in downtown Wellington yesterday, addressed to Police Minister Annette King, calling for New Zealand Police to fire Mr Rickards.
Thepostcards, with free postage, say that while being paid more than $150,000 a year, Mr Rickards has:
* taken sexual advantage of vulnerable young women
* supported convicted rapists
* been involved in immoral, manipulative and unacceptable conduct.
The postcards say his actions have been "totally unacceptable to all New Zealanders".
"It is time for the police to act and prove they know the difference between right and wrong!"
Ms King says she has no responsibility for Mr Rickards' employment case, which was in the hands of Police Commissioner Howard Broad.
In Parliament this week she said good progress was being made. "It is my understanding that a tribunal date, if not already set, is about to be set ... I have advised the House that a conclusion of this issue is close."
She said Mr Rickards remained a member of the police and was entitled to due process. Last night the activists behind the postcard campaign declined to comment.
Mr Rickards has been suspended for three years. It was revealed at the weekend that police had given him a new $50,000 car.
The car is part of Mr Rickards' estimated $250,000 remuneration package. Prime Minister Helen Clark said the situation was "odd", but the car was part of a salary package.
Mr Rickards was suspended when the investigation began into allegations by Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas that he and former officers Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum raped her in the early 1980s.
All three were acquitted but Mr Rickards admitted he had group sex with Mrs Nicholas, and spoke out in support of his co-accused.
It has been reported he is likely to face an internal disciplinary process over some of his sexual liaisons with Mrs Nicholas and his public criticism of the competence of the police investigation into the allegations by her and other women.
