KEY POINTS:
The wife of a former policeman accused of indecent assault has been accused of lying to a court to give him an alibi.
In response to cross examination at the High Court in Auckland by Crown prosecutor Brent Stanaway about inconsistencies in her evidence, Sharon Shipton said the
alleged victim had given conflicting evidence as well.
Mr Stanaway asked how she knew this given the evidence was given in a closed court and the woman said her husband, the accused Brad Shipton, 49, had told her.
Mr Stanaway asked her what else she had been conversing with her husband about.
"He said: 'I cannot believe how these lies are affecting our lives.' I've had that conversation almost daily with him for two years. And that he loved me."
Stanaway: "And did you say you loved him?"
Mrs Shipton: "Yes."
Mr Stanaway: "And that you were prepared to lie for him?"
Mrs Shipton: "I never ever said to my husband that I would lie for him."
Shipton, Clint Rickards, 46, and Bob Schollum, 54, deny charges of kidnapping the woman and indecently assaulting her with a bottle in Rotorua sometime between November 1983 and August 1984 when she was 16.
Mrs Shipton has said she and her husband were on a month-long holiday to Wanganui and Wellington in February 1984, when it was alleged the offences took place.
Crown prosecutor Brent Stanaway said at most the Shiptons had stayed for three or four days, not a month which was a recent fabrication.
Mr Stanaway said Mrs Shipton had called her cousin, who she had stayed with during the holiday, for the first time in years after the complainant had testified last week.
Mrs Shipton had not had contact with her cousin for many years and "then suddenly out of the blue you ring her, after the complainant gives evidence", he said.
"It had nothing to do with the complainant giving evidence," Mrs Shipton replied.
"You rang her to say that she might be contacted by the police."
"It was one of the reasons."
"After years of silence," Mr Stanaway said.
Mrs Shipton denied asking her cousin about dates of the stay in February 1984.
"I did ask if she recalled us staying with her in the month of February."
Under further questioning Mrs Shipton maintained her grandmother had been admitted to a resthome in Wanganui in February 1984, around the time the couple had visited.
Mr Stanaway produced statements from Mrs Shipton's father and uncle, along with hospital records stating her grandmother had had a stroke and had been admitted to the resthome prior to 1984.
When asked if she accepted she was wrong and her grandmother had been admitted to the resthome as early as December 1982 , Mrs Shipton said she did not.
Mr Stanaway said a letter sent last week by Rickards' lawyer John Haigh to Wanganui Hospital asking for the woman's health records showed how the defence team were working as one.
After a recess a statement was read out to the jury, saying the crown accepted the letter from Mr Haigh was sent out without his knowledge and Mr Haigh only knew it about it after it was sent and he had told his secretary it was entirely "inappropriate".
Mr Stanaway asked at what point she had decided she would give evidence about the holiday in Wanganui in February, 1984.
"I did not decide, it was in conjunction with my husband's lawyer."
Mr Stanaway repeated to her that at most the Shiptons had stayed for a week in Wanganui.
"I know you put that Mr Stanaway, I totally reject it."
"This evidence of a month away from Rotorua is just a jack-up," he replied.
"A recent fabrication on your behalf, after hearing the evidence of the complainant," he said.
The "jack-up has only been implemented in the last few days," he said.
"Mr Stanaway the statements you have put to me are the jack-up."
"At any time have you come forward to the police or Crown, to say "my husband was in Wanganui in February 1984 for most of the month"?" he asked.
Mrs Shipton replied: "I would never approach the Operation Austin [police investigating historic sexual allegations] team or crown to assist in any way.
"I've seen, read and heard what is the most shameful, unethical, unprofessional conduct of that team."
Mrs Shipton said she knew when she testified on Thursday the investigation team would have been "running around, possibly the world trying to prove I am a liar. I am not."
Under re-examination by Shipton's lawyer Bill Nabney, Mrs Shipton said she would not admit she was wrong about when her grandmother had been admitted to the resthome.
The trial adjourned early and is expected to continue tomorrow morning with two more crown witnesses.
Schollum has elected not to call witnesses.
