Officers in second rape claim cover-up

By EUGENE BINGHAM

Two officers accused of sexually interfering with Louise Nicholas were implicated in the police cover-up of another rape.

A damning 1996 report on the police's failure to investigate a rape complaint by Rhondda Herbert-Savage in Murupara implicates two of the seven policemen accused of abusing Mrs Nicholas.

But despite the report raising serious concerns about the actions of the officers, and the fact that senior police were aware of Mrs Nicholas' accusations against them, it was not until this month, seven years later, that the police hierarchy and the Government launched wide-ranging investigations into the 1980s activities of Bay of Plenty police.

The Office of the Commissioner this week refused to comment on the lack of a comprehensive investigation at the time, saying it was a matter likely to be covered by the commission of inquiry headed by Justice Bruce Robertson and Dame Margaret Bazley.

That inquiry will look at Mrs Nicholas' allegations about a cover-up of her complaint that she was pack-raped by three Rotorua officers - Auckland police commander Clint Rickards, Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum, who have both since left the force - in about 1986.

Her complaint is also the subject of a top-level criminal investigation, along with allegations that she was interfered with by police officers in Murupara while she was aged between 13 and 15.

The officers she named were Mr Schollum (now a Napier car salesman), Kelvin Powell (who has been stood down as district commander of the Waikato), Trevor Clayton (who died last year), Warren Smith (who recently left the police), and another former constable who has name suppression.

Ms Herbert-Savage, a childhood friend of Mrs Nicholas, had gone to the Murupara police in 1982 or 1983 to complain that she had twice been raped by a man at her workplace.

Nothing was done about the complaint and it was not until 1995, when the accused rapist was spoken to by police about other sex attacks, that the earlier allegations resurfaced.

In November 1996, Detective Inspector Graham Bell produced a report on the handling on Ms Herbert-Savage's complaint.

He was satisfied that she had spoken to Mr Clayton about the rapes.

Other officers in the station knew about the complaint.

One of them, according to the report, was Mr Smith, although he denied knowing about it when questioned by Mr Bell.

Mr Smith declined to comment when contacted this week.

The report highlighted what was said to be a telling and revealing quote by Mr Clayton, who left the police under the early retirement scheme in 1989.

"I know I would have done something about something as serious as that," he said during his interview with Mr Bell.

"A lot of things we didn't - we wrote it off - but you know something big like this, if that's what happened and that's what she ... oh, you wouldn't believe Rhondda too much, though.

"I know that for real."

Mr Clayton has also been accused of covering up Mrs Nicholas' complaints.