Robin Brooke in police probe

No charges have yet been laid against former All Black Robin Brooke. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Robin Booke is the former All Black at the centre of a Fijian police investigation after a 15-year-old girl alleged he sexually harassed her at a luxury hotel.

The Auckland girl claims Brooke, 43, grabbed her backside twice while she was poolside at the Hilton Fiji Beach Resort and Spa on Denarau Island on New Year's Eve. Another teenager, a boy, alleges Brooke assaulted him as he tried to intervene.

Police in Fiji confirmed yesterday that Brooke, who played 69 matches for the All Blacks, was under investigation.

They said no charges had been laid and the investigation was ongoing.

The girl has returned to New Zealand and her mother said yesterday the alleged incident was "upsetting".

She told the Herald on Sunday she had asked police in Auckland to follow up on the alleged incident. She met with a detective on Friday and was told officers would talk to counterparts in Fiji.

"We want this followed up, we want some sort of response from him. We don't want him to get a criminal conviction but we want him to give our daughter a sincere apology," she said.

Brooke could not be reached for contact last night and his agent Sara Tetro did not return calls.

The girl travelled to Nadi with two female schoolfriends for New Year.

Philip Buckleton's daughter was one of them. Buckleton owns the Beachside Resort at Nadi, where he lives, but his children attend school in New Zealand.

Buckleton said Brooke - who lives in Tauranga with his wife Hayley, two sons and a daughter, and owns a New World supermarket - owned an apartment on Denarau Island and visited each year.

"We took [the girls] to Denarau for New Year because it had security and it was safe," said Buckleton. "They were sitting poolside at the Hilton. They didn't know who Robin Brooke was. He walked past and grabbed [the girl] on the bum. She yelled out something like 'what the hell do you think you're doing, that's disgusting'."

The girl told Buckleton the grab hurt. "A short time later he came back and did exactly the same thing to the same girl, which she couldn't believe," said Buckleton.

The girl's 17-year-old friend Jordan stepped in. "I said 'what do you think you're doing'. He got right up in my face and said 'settle down or I'll knock you the f**k out'," said Jordan last night.

The verbal altercation continued and Jordan alleged Brooke assaulted him. "He threw me on a deckchair and grabbed my throat ... one of the other girls went and got a guard ... he kept saying 'settle down' and eventually I just said no."

After being told of the allegations, Buckleton contacted the girl's parents in Auckland. "I felt responsible. We were the guardians of her while she was in our home. I contacted her parents and they were disgusted and upset. Then I contacted the tourist police."

Jordan said he made an assault complaint and an officer took statements from the teenagers and handed the case to the Namaka police.

Buckleton said Brooke contacted the girl later in the day. "He wanted a reconciliation ... [The girl] said no way. She was so angry about it."

Jordan said he went to see Brooke several days later to try and "smooth things over". He said he and the police officer in charge of the case met Brooke and his wife at a hotel. "He was saying he was really sorry and if he could just turn back the clock ... he was nervous. His wife was there and she told me they had kids, she was really distraught, she looked like she was about to break into tears."

The girl's mother said her daughter saved up to pay for her airfare to Fiji through her part-time job. "We sent her to Fiji for New Year to keep her out of harm's way and away from the drinking that goes on here."

The Auckland detective who spoke to the mother referred the Herald on Sunday to police national headquarters.

Spokesman Jon Neilson said police were aware of the case but had not started their own investigation into the alleged incident. "We would only assist Fijian police ... that's where it happened and it's their jurisdiction," he said.

* Robin Matthew Brooke

Born December 1966, Warkworth

Played for Auckland between 1987 and 2001

Played for the Blues between 1996 and 2001, captaining them in 2000 and 2001

Made his All Blacks debut against Ireland, June 1992

Played 69 matches for the All Blacks and also played for the New Zealand Maori team, 1992-1999

Retired at the end of the 2001 season

- HERALD ON SUNDAY