Rape claim astonishes police chief

By JO-MARIE BROWN


Waikato's suspended police chief, Kelvin Powell, is astonished that a second woman has accused him of sexual misconduct, and was not even told the complaint existed until the media found out.

Mr Powell was stood down from his duties two months ago after Louise Nicholas accused him and other police officers of subjecting her to sexual indecencies in Murupara when she was aged 13 to 15.

Those allegations are separate from an incident where Mrs Nicholas says she was pack-raped by three police officers in Rotorua a few years later.

But a former police constable has now accused Mr Powell of raping her at a birthday party in the 1980s.

Yesterday, Mr Powell's lawyer, Susan Hughes, said her client found out on Friday night about the month-old accusation.

"Superintendent Powell was contacted by [police human resources] to tell him that the media knew of the allegation.

"Before that, we knew nothing," Ms Hughes said.

Mr Powell was also still waiting to be interviewed by the police inquiry team looking into Mrs Nicholas' complaints.

He has not heard from them since being given his stand-down notice in February.

Ms Hughes said she had asked Police Commissioner Rob Robinson to immediately provide details of the rape allegation to her client.

"Otherwise, he is in the invidious position of the media knowing more than he does."

Mr Powell was said to be "astonished" by the latest accusation.

He strongly denied having committed any offence against either the former police constable or Mrs Nicholas.

Police national headquarters spokesman Michael Player said it was not unusual that Mr Powell had been kept in the dark.

"It's not our process to actually go around making announcements when someone complains," Mr Player said.

"Sometimes it takes quite a while to advance a complaint to a stage where you want to go and talk to the person being complained of ... it's up to the investigators really to determine at what point they do that."

Although 20 officers were working on the inquiry, it was a lengthy and complex one. Mr Powell would be contacted in due course.

"With Louise Nicholas, for instance, there was a series of interviews over a period of about six weeks that only concluded about a week ago so there's a large number of people that now need to be spoken to."

Mr Player said the inquiry team would manage the investigation at their own pace to ensure it was done thoroughly and professionally.