Police defend top job for Rickards

By KEVIN TAYLOR, PATRICK GOWER and PHIL TAYLOR

The Police Commissioner has defended promoting Clint Rickards to the top Auckland police job despite knowing for seven years about sexual allegations against him.

Mr Rickards is one of the men at the centre of allegations of a pack-rape in Rotorua in 1986 and subsequently botched investigations.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said the allegations were a factor in her not recommending him for the job of deputy commissioner, which requires Government approval, in 2000.

But Commissioner Rob Robinson told the Herald the same allegations were not enough to stop him promoting Mr Rickards to the rank of assistant commissioner a year later.

"I accept totally the residual matters of concern from when this matter was first reported. But when you are working in the areas of criminal law, employment law and police discipline you must, and can only, draw on provable facts."

He said a police investigation into the allegations in the 1990s had found they could not be proved "and that had to be relied upon".

"The acknowledgment [of concerns] and that translating into the ability to do anything tangible are different things."

Mr Robinson said Helen Clark had been appointing someone to a statutory position and that was governed by different rules than the employment law he had been acting under.

Yesterday Mr Rickards said he was taking three weeks' unscheduled annual leave from his new job as Auckland Central commander as inquiries into the allegations mount.

Mr Rickards unsuccessfully applied for the position of deputy commissioner, which was given to Steve Long, who is now heading a police inquiry into the allegations by Louise Nicholas of pack-rape by Mr Rickards and two former officers.

Mrs Nicholas has also accused Detective Inspector John Dewar, the man charged with investigating the original allegations, of failing to investigate them properly to protect his colleagues.

The Prime Minister told the Herald yesterday that the Police Commissioner "quite properly" advised her four years ago that Mr Rickards had been investigated over sexual misconduct claims.

"They had been investigated and no action had been taken," she said.

"That was put to me so that I could take that into account - because I, as Prime Minister, am the person who recommends to the Governor-General who should occupy statutory positions - and it's a matter of record that I did not recommend Mr Rickards."

Only three police positions are statutory - the commissioner and two deputies.

Not only is Mr Rickards in charge of the Auckland City police district but, in a new role beginning when he took charge on January 1, he co-ordinates the running of the region's three other districts, which cover around 2000 police officers.

Mr Rickards, who rose from rabble-rousing teen in Rotorua to be one of the highest-profile Maori in the field of law and order, has adamantly denied the allegations. "I will be co-operating fully with the inquiry and look forward to the false and destructive allegations being resolved once and for all," he said.

The two former policemen Mrs Nicholas named - Tauranga District councillor Brad Shipton and Napier used-car salesman Bob Schollum - have also denied any wrongdoing, and Mr Dewar says he did not manipulate her to protect police colleagues.

The three men Mrs Nicholas accuses say they had sex with her but that it was consensual.

Yesterday, Mr Robinson said Mrs Nicholas had made "several complaints" to police during the 1990s and these were investigated.

Reviews of the inquiries were later ordered by the Bay of Plenty regional commander, Bruce Scott, and the Police Complaints Authority.

Mr Robinson said an investigation found insufficient evidence for charges or disciplinary proceedings.

Mr Scott told the officers he found aspects of their behaviour with Mrs Nicholas "unacceptable".

Asked if the existence of the allegations had been a factor in Mr Rickards' failure to get the deputy commissioner's job four years ago, Helen Clark said: "Obviously that's a factor I had to take into account, and I had to take into account attributes of other applicants.

"As the commissioner said yesterday, the new element was that this investigation was flawed - and he could not have known that when he advised me and [State Services Commissioner Michael] Wintringham in 2000."

But the man who headed the Police Complaints Authority review, Detective Chief Inspector Rex Miller, said the police hierarchy should have known his inquiry was hamstrung by Mr Dewar because he told them.

Four inquiries are planned or possible into Mrs Nicholas' allegations:

* An internal police inquiry has been ordered by Mr Robinson. It will be led by Deputy Commissioner Long.

* Mr Robinson says the criminal investigation of Mrs Nicholas' allegations could be reopened "if any matter emerges at any stage" that warranted it.

* Police Complaints Authority, Judge Ian Borrin, said he was considering using four new investigators to run an independent probe.

* Helen Clark has asked the head of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Dr Mark Prebble, to report as soon as possible on an independent Government inquiry.

National, Act, the Greens, New Zealand First and United Future have all called for an inquiry independent of the police.

In short

* 1986: Rotorua teenager Louise Nicholas, 18, is allegedly raped and violated by three police officers.

* 1993: She complains to the then Rotorua CIB chief, Detective Inspector John Dewar.

* 1995: Detective Chief Inspector Rex Miller of Hamilton (now retired) does an inquiry for the Police Complaints Authority into the handling of the rape allegations.

* 2004: Mrs Nicholas goes public with her allegations, saying she was manipulated to protect her attackers.

* YESTERDAY: Prime Minister Helen Clark asks for advice on an urgent inquiry and reveals the sex allegations were a factor in a job decision involving Auckland police commander Clint Rickards.

Mr Rickards takes three weeks' leave, saying he expects to return "as normal" to work after an inquiry.

Mr Rickards and the other two men accused of pack-rape all categorically deny the allegations.