KEY POINTS:
Tauranga woman Donna Johnson claims former policeman Brad Shipton took advantage of her vulnerability as a victim of incest to force her into sex.
She also said Shipton used intimidation in an attempt to stop her laying a complaint against him until Louise Nicholas' allegations became public in
2004.
Police have not laid charges in relation to Ms Johnson. She has been interviewed by the Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct that was sparked by the Nicholas allegations. It is expected to report to the Governor-General this month.
Ms Johnson got to know Ms Nicholas during the past 18 months, attending the trial to support her. She does not believe justice has been delivered to her, Ms Nicholas or another woman of whom Shipton and his former colleagues, Bob Schollum and Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards, were acquitted of attacking this week.
Shipton is serving 8 1/2 years' jail for kidnapping and raping a young woman in Mt Maunganui in 1989. The woman alleged she was handcuffed and violated with a police baton. He was acquitted last year on similar charges regarding Ms Nicholas, a teenager at the time of the alleged offending, and was found not guilty this week of charges of kidnapping and indecently assaulting a 16-year-old girl with a bottle. All of the allegations related to the 1980s. The defendants said the incidents were either consensual or did not occur.
Ms Johnson met Shipton through her mother who flatted with him in Rotorua during the 1980s after the break-up of her marriage.
Her mother got Shipton to speak to her after Ms Johnson complained that her grandfather had regularly raped her during the late 1970s and early 1980s. She said her mother did not believe her and thought she got Shipton to make the problem go away.
Shipton came to where she was living, took her to a nearby park and questioned her in detail about the offending. He led her to believe that her grandfather would be arrested.
He was arrested four years later when two other young people made similar allegations against him. Ms Johnson gave evidence in that case and was escorted by Shipton to the hearing in Palmerston North.
But Ms Johnson said the offending alleged by the other complainants occurred after she had complained to Shipton in 1984 and that they could have been spared their ordeal had the policeman done his job.
Years later, she obtained her file, including a job sheet signed by Shipton, containing a brief account of the 1984 interview. It notes her allegations against her grandfather but adds the interview was stopped "due to her being upset".
Ms Johnson disputes this, saying she believes he manipulated her in order to do a favour for her mother. "I was young. I didn't know that you don't do an interview in a police car. He made me tell him the mechanical details [but] he didn't put that in his job sheet. I believe he was getting off on all the details he made me tell him."
In 1995, when Ms Johnson was a 27-year-old solo mother, she alleges Shipton came to her house late one night while on duty and forced her into a sex act.
Ms Johnson's lawyer, Vinay Deobhakta, confirmed to the Weekend Herald that she made a statement to police in which she said she believed Shipton's intention was to force her to have intercourse and to include a colleague - a colleague whom she said Shipton told her was waiting in the police car.
She had been recovering from gynaecological surgery and believes this deterred Shipton from raping her and calling his colleague to join him, but says Shipton forced her to perform oral sex.
Ms Johnson said she tried to make a complaint soon after the incident, but was told by a policeman that she shouldn't be making such scandalous assertions about Shipton. She had felt intimidated and this deterred her from going to the police until she read of Ms Nicholas' allegations in 2004.
Shipton's lawyer Bill Nabney said he had a letter from the police saying they had investigated the matter and did not intend to lay charges. He said he knew nothing about Ms Johnson's claims regarding Shipton's handling of her complaint against her grandfather, but said it would be a matter for the Police Complaints Authority.
Shipton was no longer a police officer and, therefore, outside the authority's jurisdiction by the time Ms Johnson felt up to making a complaint. She said she spent most of her adult life in fear of Shipton. The day after the 1995 incident, he had visited her work and asked: "Are things okay with us?"
Months later, he had arrived at her home and told her he had heard she was spreading "shit" about him and he did not appreciate it.
She had moved home and was not listed in the phone book in an effort to prevent him finding her. When she asked how he found her, he had said it was through power board records "that's why I'm a D".
