Counsellor says police ignored her warning

11.45am

A sexual abuse counsellor who dealt with the woman at the centre of rape allegations against police says that, if police had only listened to her, the case might have turned out differently.

The counsellor, Margaret Craig, also said in a letter to Police Commissioner Rob Robinson on Sunday she was highly disturbed that Mr Robinson had appeared to say he was unaware there were credibility issues surrounding previous investigations of the rape allegations, when she herself had raised exactly those concerns in 1995.

Mrs Craig told the Dominion Post newspaper she began counselling Louise Nicholas several years after Mrs Nicholas says she was pack-raped by three police officers, who also violated her with a police baton. That was in 1986.

Mrs Nicholas has said she was raped again on other occasions by two of the officers. One of those officer it is alleged was Clint Rickards who is now an assistant commissioner and head of Auckland police. He is now on leave.

The other two men named by Mrs Nicholas have since left the police. They are Tauranga city councillor Brad Shipton and Napier car dealer Bob Schollum.

All three men have strenuously denied the allegations.

At the time Mrs Craig was counselling Mrs Nicholas, the rape complaints were being investigated by Inspector John Dewar.

Mrs Craig said Mr Dewar was picking up Mrs Nicholas, then aged 26, from her home and taking her to lunch before bringing her to counselling sessions.

"That began to concern me because I knew she was very vulnerable," Mrs Craig told The Dominion Post.

She told the newspaper she was "very upfront" in telling Mr Dewar that the relationship he seemed to be forming with Mrs Nicholas was inappropriate.

"I guess he listened to those concerns but from what I can recall of it he didn't make any changes to his behaviour."

Mrs Nicholas now says Mr Dewar manipulated her into changing her allegations against the three men, in effect thwarting a subsequent investigation by police of her claims. He has denied that.

Though the three men have admitted having sex with Mrs Nicholas, they have denied raping her or using a baton on her.

Mrs Craig said she became so concerned about Mr Dewar's influence on her client that she wrote to police headquarters in August 1995, but did not receive a reply for five months, and then only after she had approached headquarters again.

In her letter to Mr Robinson on Sunday, she said the reply that she had eventually received reinforced everything she had ever studied about people in organisational systems "covering their backs".

"I filed the letter away, believing that one day I may need to bring it to light again. This is the day," she wrote.

"Today, I strongly believe that had your staff contacted me and spoken to me about my very real concerns (outlined in letter August 31, 1995), this weekend's revelations may not have been necessary," Mrs Craig's letter said.

Mr Robinson has ordered a full review of the case which, he says, could lead to a new inquiry. Prime Minister Helen Clark says there also needs to be a separate inquiry, independent of the police.

- NZPA