KEY POINTS:
Convicted rapist Bob Schollum will stay behind bars because the Parole Board says he is still a risk to the community and has an "arrogant view" of his role in the pack rape of a young woman.
The former police officer is serving an eight-year sentence after being
convicted in July 2005 with three other men of the 1989 pack rape and abduction of a 20-year-old at Mt Maunganui.
The woman said the men lured her into a lifesaving hut on the pretext of having a lunch date with one of them. Once there she was raped.
The men said the sex was consensual.
Former police officer Brad Shipton and Tauranga businessman Peter McNamara were also jailed for rape, and fireman Warren Hales for abducting the victim.
In two later trials, Schollum and Shipton, with former assistant police commissioner Clint Rickards, were acquitted of other sex allegations from the 1980s.
Schollum, whose sentence will end in 2013, applied for parole and a hearing was held in March.
But in a decision issued yesterday, the board refused parole.
"The board was concerned that he still has the same views he had at the time of the rape; that was his very arrogant view as expressed by the sentencing judge that he had a sense of entitlement to have sex with the victim in the pack rape based on his perception that she was 'hot for it' or encouraged him in some way," the decision said.
"This is very troubling, considering the facts of the case and the balance of power with five adult men versus one 20-year-old woman."
The board said Schollum vehemently maintained his innocence and had his own "world view" about his behaviour.
"Mr Schollum has shown no remorse and taken absolutely no responsibility of his behaviour on that day other than regretting coming there in police uniform which he is embarrassed and ashamed about," it said.
"He has no empathy with the victim or any perception of the violence inflicted upon her."
The victim told the board she did not believe a man who could behave so brutally would change, and he remained a risk.
The board said until Schollum accepted some responsibility and engaged in counselling or therapy to alter his "concrete thinking" he remained a risk.
The board said Schollum's settled relationship with his wife was a protective factor for him but if the marriage faltered his risk would "increase markedly".
- NZPA
