New trial under way for assistant commissioner and ex-cops

Clint Rickards, Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton

Suspended Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards and former officers Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton went on trial on new sex charges today.

The trio pleaded not guilty in the High Court in Auckland this morning to kidnapping and indecently assaulting a 16-year-old girl with a bottle.

The offences are alleged to have occurred between November 1983 and August 1984.

The men were acquitted in March last year of raping Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas also in the 1980s.

The latest trial is shrouded by suppression orders and many details of last year's trial also remain suppressed.

A jury of eight men and four women was selected this morning and the trial is expected to last two weeks.

- NZPA