Inquiry to look into 'deathbed confession'

By AINSLEY THOMSON AND NZPA

A former policeman's reported deathbed confession that he was warned to keep quiet about claims of a police pack-rape will be examined in the reopened criminal investigation.

The statement from the Police Commissioner's Office came after an account from Peter Crawford, brother of Louise Nicholas who is at the centre of the police rape allegations.

Mr Crawford said that the week before his close friend and former Rotorua policeman Trevor Clayton died last year, he broke down and said he wanted to ask forgiveness from Mrs Nicholas and her family.

He told the Dominion Post newspaper that Mr Clayton had been gagged to keep quiet about the allegations.

But Mr Clayton's partner, Debbie Upston, denied the confession happened.

Ms Upston said the men were together for no more than five minutes. She was only 6m away and could hear their voices and some laughter.

When she went back into the room Mr Clayton, her partner of 16 years and who was in the final stages of cancer, had fallen asleep.

She said she could hear the tones of the men's voices during their brief discussion and knew Mr Clayton, whose moods she was attuned to, was not upset.

"If, and it's a big if, Trevor said sorry for anything, it would have been the same thing he said to everyone who came to visit."

She said Mr Clayton would say to everyone: "If I have hurt you or family for any reason I am sorry."

It was nearly a year since Mr Clayton died. "Let the man rest in peace, and his family get on with the grieving," said Ms Upston.

She said the meeting had been requested by Mr Crawford, not Mr Clayton. Mr Crawford had been ringing regularly to see if he could visit but Mr Clayton was too sick and kept declining the request. Eventually Mr Clayton agreed to a visit.

But Mr Crawford has said that as Mr Clayton lay dying, he wanted to come clean about what he knew.

The two men had a 20-year friendship and Mr Clayton had been a groomsman at Mr Crawford's wedding.

Mr Crawford said he knew his sister had alleged that police officers in Rotorua had sexually assaulted her in the mid to late 1980s, and because of their divided loyalties the two men did not discuss the allegations in great detail until a few days before Mr Clayton died.

"Trevor was gravely ill ... He had cancer ... I shot round there to visit him and we sat down and caught up on some old times and then he quite suddenly got quite emotional."

"I felt he wanted to get something off his chest with me. He broke down and held my hand and basically he wanted to come clean with the issues regarding my sister.

"He certainly wanted to clear, have it all out in the open and have it cleared up and he was definitely gagged. Threatened maybe.

"He said, 'There's definitely been a cover-up' ... He was definitely having trouble coping with it because he knew it was illegal."

Mr Clayton was also involved in the case of a second woman whose rape complaint was bungled by police.

He left the police force in 1990, and said he had suffered post traumatic stress syndrome "as a direct result of the events in Murupara in the early 80s".