NEWS > 27 February 2007

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The Daily Post - Rotorua,New Z
27 February 2007

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Witness: Police probe unethica

The wife of one of three former Rotorua police officers accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a girl has described the investigation as "shameless, unethical and unprofessional".

Sharon Shipton, who is the wife of Bradley Shipton, made the accusation yesterday in the High Court at Auckland after being asked why she did not tell the police investigation team about where her husband was in February 1984.

"I didn't want to assist [the police] in any way.

"I have read, I have seen, I have heard what I consider shameless, unethical and unprofessional conduct of that team.

"I would never approach them to talk about what was happening," Mrs Shipton said.

Mrs Shipton was giving evidence in defence of her husband.

Shipton, 48, Robert Francis Schollum, 54, who are both former police officers and assistant police commissioner Clinton John Tukotahi Rickards, 46, are on trial after pleading not guilty to kidnapping a 16-year-old girl and indecently assaulting her with a bottle at Rotorua between November 10, 1983 and August 31, 1984.

It is alleged she was handcuffed to a bedpost at a Rotorua house and sexually assaulted with a whisky bottle.

The complainant said she had a relationship with Shipton for five months.

While being cross-examined by Crown Solicitor Brent Stanaway, Mrs Shipton admitted talking to her husband during the trial.

She was asked if she had told her husband she would be prepared to lie for him and Mrs Shipton said she had not.

"He said to me, 'I cannot believe this is what's happening ... that these lies are being told, that our lives have been so affected by this'.

"I have had that conversation with my husband almost daily for two years," Mrs Shipton said.

Although Mrs Shipton was not in the courtroom when the complainant gave evidence last week she was aware the complainant had given conflicting evidence because her husband had told her so.

In her evidence, Mrs Shipton said she and her husband had spent most of February 1984 with family in Wanganui.

During their time in Wanganui she visited her grandmother, who she said had been admitted that same month to a resthome.

Mrs Shipton was shown documents by the Crown yesterday that showed her grandmother had already been in the resthome at least a year earlier.

When she was asked to explain the different times, Mrs Shipton said it was her recollection her grandmother had been admitted in February 1984.

Mrs Shipton said she was not aware her grandmother had had a stroke in September 1982.

Nor did she accept her grandmother was admitted to Wanganui Hospital following the stroke.

When asked why she did not accept that was the case, Mrs Shipton said because it was in a statement by her father.

She said there had been problems between herself and her father for a number of years.

Mrs Shipton accused police officers of "running around New Zealand and the world" at the weekend to find evidence to prove she was a liar, but she said she was not lying.

Mr Stanaway said Mrs Shipton's evidence about being in Wanganui with her husband was a "jack-up".

However, she said the statements police had got from her family over the weekend were a "jack-up".

After Schollum's lawyer Paul Mabey, OC, told the court his client would not call or give evidence, the jury was told the Crown would call two more witnesses today.

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The Daily Post - Rotorua,New Z27 February 2007

Witness: Police probe unethica

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The Daily Post - Rotorua,New Z
27 February 2007