'The case ruined my life' says Rickards' accuser

Clint Rickards denied knowing the second rape complainant. Photo / Kenny Rodger

A woman whose rape allegations put assistant police commissioner Clint Rickards in court spoke publicly yesterday for the first time, saying she now regrets ever coming forward.

Rickards, Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum were found not guilty earlier this year of raping the woman - their second trial after earlier being found not guilty of raping Louise Nicholas. During the two trials, it was kept from the juries that Schollum and Shipton were serving eight-year sentences for the pack rape of a young woman in Mt Maunganui in 1989.

Rickards - who denied knowing the second rape complainant - resigned from the police force last week, reportedly a day before a preliminary hearing into internal charges which are understood to have included sexual misconduct.

Yesterday, the second rape complainant said she believed Rickards, who is believed to have received a payout, had not suffered "one little bit". Now aged 40 and a mother-of-four, she says the police should have held Rickards to the internal disciplinary hearing.

She did not believe Rickards should have received a payout.

She has felt the allegations, the trial and its aftermath impact on every part of her life. She has cut down on the hours she works, and remains single after her relationship ended just as police officers investigating the trio asked her to come forward.

"To have put it aside for many years and hardly anybody knowing and then just as my relationship split ... this turned up and it's just wiped me basically."

When police first arrived she told them she did not want to be involved in the case. "I just told them 'look I can't help you but believe the woman [Louise Nicholas]'."

She regrets speaking out to the police. "If I could just jump and go somewhere ... and pretend it never happened, it would be wonderful. I still wish I hadn't said who I was to the police. I only did it to ... help Louise. I didn't know mine was going to be another case otherwise I would never have said as much as I had.

"I have to get on a plane and move away from here. This is the place where the shit has been dealt to me. I hate this town," says the woman, who cannot be named because of court rules protecting those in sex cases.

Rickards and ex-police colleagues Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum faced trial on charges of kidnapping and indecently assaulting the then 16-year-old girl between November 1983 and August 1984 in Rotorua. They were found not guilty on all charges.

The woman was identified by investigating police after they found a note in Shipton's police notebook. It contained the word "milk bottle", alongside a phone number. She alleged she was handcuffed to a bed and violated by something that felt like a bottle. She told the Herald on Sunday the case had ruined her life.

Even with name suppression, she is still known as the final complainant in the string of sex cases to go to court. It is unpleasant and awkward - even if recognition tends to lead to support.

A former police officer recognised her days ago as the woman who took the matter to court, and offered her moral support. "I didn't think people would recognise me but they do."

She has become friends with Nicholas, and attended a private launch in Rotorua of her recently published book. "I really enjoyed the book. I found it quite devastating only because I went to the [John] Dewar sentencing with Louise, and I went from there to the book opening. It was all too much for me.

"I got really emotional on it. I know I have to put all of this behind me. I wish there was a magic wand that could make me wake up and everything would be wonderful again."