Rape claim no bar to top posts

By PATRICK GOWER, PHIL TAYLOR and KEVIN TAYLOR

Clint Rickards, the senior police officer facing pack-rape allegations, was promoted four times after the Police Commissioner learned of the accusations.

Commissioner Rob Robinson is under fire for making Mr Rickards one of his top decision-makers even though he was aware of the allegations and subsequent botched investigations.

A police officer (now retired) who led a Police Complaints Authority inquiry into the handling of the rape allegations said he warned Mr Robinson that "you will regret this decision for years to come".

Mr Robinson has acknowledged he was aware that Mr Rickards confessed to having consensual group sex with the woman behind the allegations, Louise Nicholas, who was 18 at the time she says Mr Rickards and two other officers raped her in Rotorua in 1986.

The three strenuously deny the claim.

Yesterday, Mr Robinson said he did not believe "sexual proclivities" should necessarily come into employment decisions.

The Herald has learned:

* In 1997, Mr Robinson promoted Mr Rickards to become the country's youngest police chief in the Gisborne district when he was assistant commissioner overseeing the Midlands region.

* In 1999, Mr Robinson, then Deputy Commissioner, accepted Mr Rickards' eventually successful application to head the Waikato district but played no further role.

* In 2001, Mr Robinson, by now commissioner, promoted Mr Rickards to assistant commissioner, bringing him to headquarters to run a troubleshooting support team for him.

* Mr Robinson appointed Mr Rickards head of the Auckland City police district, a new role that gave Mr Rickards overall responsibility for the city's two other districts.

Yesterday, Mr Robinson said past employment decisions and whether "they had been properly taken" needed to be reviewed.

Mr Rickards denies the allegations and has stood down his command of the city to take unscheduled leave while the allegations are investigated.

Mrs Nicholas went public with her allegations in Saturday's Dominion Post newspaper, accusing Mr Rickards and former police officers Brad Shipton, a Tauranga District councillor, and Napier used-car salesman Bob Schollum of the pack-rape. They also have denied the allegations.

Mrs Nicholas has also accused former Detective Inspector John Dewar, the man responsible for investigating the original allegations, of failing to investigate them properly so he could protect his colleagues.

Mr Robinson's initial response that the only new issue arising out of Mrs Nicholas' public allegations was that "the integrity of the original investigations have been called into question" has also been challenged - by the former police officer who reviewed it.

Rex Miller, then a detective chief inspector who headed an inquiry into the handling of rape allegations against the police officers, said he warned Mr Robinson when he appointed Mr Rickards to head the Gisborne district in 1997.

"I told him he would regret the decision, that it wouldn't be wise because Rickards was carrying a bit of baggage. And he [Mr Robinson] said, 'No, no, he'll be good, he'll be good'."

Mr Robinson says Mr Miller "may well have" made the comment but he cannot recall it.

However, the Herald yesterday confirmed with former Detective Senior Sergeant Bruce Raffan, who was in the room at the time, that the remark was made.

The Cabinet will today consider an independent inquiry.

Prime Minister Helen Clark has revealed that Mr Robinson told her that anonymous letters were sent to the police in 1999 about the rape allegations against Mr Rickards and the others.

Helen Clark said the sexual misconduct claims against Mr Rickards were a factor in her passing him over

for the deputy commissioner's role when she made a recommendation to the Governor-General in 2000. Mr Robinson had told her about the letters at that time.

"I have to take into account that I am making a recommendation for one of the highest statutory positions in the land and that if there's going to be anonymous allegations and innuendo around a person in such a position, that doesn't help the New Zealand police."

She said the State Services Commission interview panel had rated Mr Rickards highly, but that was before members were made aware of the claims.

"It was then decided, as I understand, to bring the names that were in contention to put before me so that I had a full picture."

Mr Robinson appointed Mr Rickards to the position of assistant commissioner in 2001 and told the Government afterwards.

Police Minister George Hawkins said he was told when Mr Rickards was appointed that there was a "sexual allegation" but that Mr Rickards had been cleared.

Asked if he felt that in retrospect it would have been helpful to have got more information about the allegations, Mr Hawkins said: "I think one must take assurances from the commissioner of the situation. He assured me he was confident that Clint Rickards had a very good track record."

An internal police inquiry headed by Deputy Commissioner Steve Long is under way into Mrs Nicholas' allegations.

The Police Complaints Authority is considering using four new independent investigators appointed last year to help with its inquiries.

But Mrs Nicholas said she did not want the police to investigate and she added to calls for the Government to order an independent inquiry.

"They can't investigate it because my belief is that they're going to put it under the carpet again and that just cannot happen, not this time," she told One News last night.

* The commander of the Bay of Plenty police district, Superintendent Gary Smith, is under investigation for allegedly sexually harassing a woman staff member.

The Office of the Police Commissioner last night confirmed that two complaints had been received under the police sexual harassment policy.

A spokeswoman said one complaint was still "under action".

She said neither complaint had required invoking a stand-down from the district command position.