Child abuse cases tough on police

"May 24, 2004." The way Chris Sicely fires off the date he left the police force - quickly, with no hesitation - leaves you in no doubt that he is glad to be out.

Until that date Mr Sicely, 50, was a detective with the Levin serious child abuse unit.

He spent half of his 18 years on the force working on child abuse cases, which included a 10-year stint in the Far North.

He is now a builder and enjoying the change.

"I enjoyed my time in the police. It was a good job but it was frustrating at times," he said.

"I'm enjoying being outside. I'm feeling physically better, coming off the anti-depressants."

Not least because he doesn't have to follow cases like the former Levin man who appears in a Palmerston North court next Tuesday to seek a stay of prosecution on three charges relating to sexual abuse of a girl under 16.

The man, who has name suppression, has already pleaded guilty to indecent sexual connection charges.

The girl is now dead.

Mr Sicely's stories of working on sexual abuse cases don't make for a great endorsement of the place we call home.

"There's one case that has never left me," he said.

"I had this girl come and see me when she was 15. She had been repeatedly sexually abused by her de facto grandfather - her mother's partner's father - since she was three years old."

The grandfather pleaded guilty, but at sentencing justice went out the door, he said.

"I was disgusted when this guy only got eight years.

"He'd basically abused her on average once a week for 12 years."

After it was all over the girl went to see Mr Sicely to thank him.

"She had a baby. It wasn't his [the grandfather's]. It was her partner's.

"It was a lovely baby, six or eight months old."

But that's not where that girl's story ended.

The young mother visited Mr Sicely on a Friday. On the following Monday a colleague asked Mr Sicely if he'd seen the death notices in the paper.

At the weekend the baby had died of meningitis.

"It skittled me. I just broke down and cried. That child [the 15-year-old] had somebody that was going to love her and not abuse her.

"It wasn't going to be. I was absolutely devastated."

It put him on Prozac.

Mr Sicely looks as though he's never had a sick day in his life. But the pressure of the job, he said, gets to people.

And he believes police bosses aren't doing enough to look after the mental health of their officers.

Officers in the unit are supposed to have a regular group meeting with a psychologist - it's not a good system, he says.

"It's a macho sort of atmosphere. You're not going to get people sitting around saying, 'Hey, I'm feeling bloody like I can't cope. I can't do this'."

After the group meeting, if an officer felt he or she needed more help they could apply for continued counselling sessions, he said, but those higher up the chain of command are not checking to see if people need the help.

"There should be an invoice going across a boss' desk saying, 'This person hasn't been to counselling'.

"He [the boss] should be asking, 'Why hasn't it happened?"'

Levin now has a two-officer team, but when Mr Sicely was there it was strictly a one-man band.

Working with 30 to 40 files at one time made for system overload, he said.

"It's an extremely hard job to do consecutively, day in day out.

"You know that on that day you are going to be working on files which are extremely sensitive and emotionally draining.

"There'd be days when you'd go, 'Not another one'."

Police have to organise medicals, counselling, get school and medical records, deal with families, do background checks and interview the accused, as well as completing any other relevant line of inquiry.

If a case did make it to trial - which isn't always the case - police then had to prepare the victim for their court date.

"If you are dedicated to your job it means long hours."

Watching children give evidence and be cross-examined at trial was difficult, he said.

"You really feel for them because of the ordeal they're going through."

And the chances of convicting those who plead not guilty aren't that great.

"By their nature these are offences that people aren't going to commit in front of other people. There aren't witnesses to say, 'I saw him hit him on the head'."

Last year the Levin office investigated 44 sexual and physical crimes against children - not including weekly referrals from the public or Child, Youth and Family.

- NZPA