46 TODAY’S NEWS

Victim adamant Shipton should not be freed

06 November 2008

A woman who was pack-raped nearly 20 years ago by former police officer Brad Shipton is adamant he remains a risk to the community and should not be set free.

The Parole Board yesterday decided to release Shipton from prison, three years into the 8½ year sentence he was given for his part in the 1989 pack rape in Mt Maunganui.

Shipton first applied for parole in May, but was turned down.

Although Shipton still denies his involvement, the Parole Board said that was not a barrier to his release.

The hearing, held last month, was presented with two psychological assessments which put Shipton at low risk of further offending.

His victim, who has name suppression, does not agree.

“He has refused to get any kind of help because he won’t admit the offence, so we have got an untreated rapist about to be set free into your community,” she told Radio New Zealand.

She said she did not blame the Parole Board for its decision but said the law that allowed Shipton’s release should be changed.

Her lawyer had argued that Shipton should have served at least two thirds of his sentence under the law prior to 2005, when the offence happened.

But the board said the fact was the trial took place in 2005 and he was eligible for release.

Shipton will remain on parole until the end of his sentence in 2014.

He must live at a certain address and take counselling. He cannot communicate or associate with his co-offenders or the victim.

Shipton received the longest sentence of the three offenders.

One of the co-accused, Peter McNamara, was released in January after serving one third of a seven-year sentence while another former police officer, Bob Schollum, was denied parole in April and remains in prison.

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Fatal police pursuit ‘unwise’, inquest told

Nov 06, 2008

A police officer who chased a car that crashed at speed in Christchurch, killing a teenager, was “unwise” to have acted alone in an unmarked car, another officer has told an inquest.

Rangi Wano, 16, died when the white Pontiac in which he was an unrestrained back-seat passenger crashed near the Eastgate Shopping Centre in September 2005.

The car, driven by Wayne Darius Silbery, 17, had been pursued around suburban Linwood for about 2-1/2 minutes before crossing a raised median strip, The Press reported.

Two other cars were caught up in the ensuing crash, which left eight people injured.

Detective Senior Sergeant David Harvey, who investigated the police chase, told the Christchurch inquest that the officer involved was “unwise” to have chased the Pontiac because he was alone in the unmarked police car.

This made it harder for him to control the pursuit while keeping police headquarters informed, and lessened his chances of catching the car’s three occupants.

The constable, who has name suppression, said he made a “quick decision” to pursue the Pontiac, and was assessing risk as the chase developed.

The Wano family’s lawyer, Christopher Persson, said the officer had limited his options and ignored opportunities to abandon the pursuit, which posed a risk to other road users.

A police conduct report has not yet been released.

Silbery later admitted a charge of manslaughter and was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison.

The inquest, before Richard McElrea, continues today.

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Helpline plan for police partners

Nov 05, 2008

A confidential helpline for wives of police officers was suggested yesterday by district court judge Robert Spear. He said there could be a need for spouses “who find themselves in a difficult situation at home”.

The judge was sentencing Adrian Hilterman, 50, a former police sergeant in Tauranga District Court on charges of assault against his wife and children. A long-time police prosecutor in Whakatane, Hilterman has resigned from the force after about 25 years and is now unemployed.

Early last month a jury found him guilty of two assaults on Dr Deborah Hilterman, 37.

The accused had denied 13 charges of assaulting her between March 1998 and June last year. One charge was withdrawn and the jury found Hilterman not guilty on 10 counts.

At the end of the week-long trial Hilterman pleaded guilty to three summary jurisdiction charges of assaulting the pair’s children, then aged eight, seven and five.

Judge Spear convicted and discharged Hilterman on those counts. On the two charges of male assaults female, he was sentenced to 150 hours’ community work. The pre-sentence report showed Hilterman regretted hitting his children and was remorseful, Judge Spear said.

During the trial it was revealed that senior officers visited Dr Hilterman in 2002 to discuss acrimony in the marriage. The GP had informally contacted police about domestic abuse but she said she did not want to lay an official complaint because she was worried her husband might lose his job and wanted to make the marriage work.

Dr Hilterman finally reported instances of abuse when Hilterman left the marital home in August last year.

During sentencing, Judge Spear said: “What I have found difficult was Mrs Hilterman’s attempt to influence the outcome of this case.” He described her victim impact report as “excessive” and ordered she not read the statement in court.

The judge also revealed Dr Hilterman had tried to telephone him directly “for reasons I can only speculate on”.

Outside the courthouse, Dr Hilterman denied emphatically she had tried to make contact with the judge. and said she was disappointed with the sentence of 150 hours’ community work, particularly for a police officer of 25 years, she said.

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Policeman’s conduct ‘truly outrageous’

01 November 2008

A judge has slammed the “truly outrageous” conduct of a Christchurch police officer who elbowed a man three times in the face while he was handcuffed in a patrol car.

Judge Colin Doherty said Constable Nathan Connolly committed a “gratuitous assault” and awarded $5000 to victim Steven Fredericks.

Fredericks, 23, of Taylorville, and friend Ronnie McGee were driving out of Revingtons Hotel, in Greymouth, on September 8, 2005, when the incident occurred.

Leaving the carpark about 10.30pm, they were stopped by a police patrol, which included Connolly. McGee took a breath test, which he failed.

Although the judge found McGee was “obstreperous” during the incident, he concluded Fredericks was a “reticent and relatively subdued personality”.

Earlier this month, the Greymouth District Court heard that Connolly tried to get Fredericks out of the car and a scuffle developed which ended with him being handcuffed on the ground and then put in the police car.

As Connolly put the seatbelt on Fredericks, the officer elbowed him in the face, the judge found.

“(Fredericks) described three separate blows, each of them deliberately aimed and applied; the last of them appearing to have particular thought put into it by Constable Connolly,” the judge wrote in his judgment.

“Constable Connolly was in my view frustrated and wanted to teach the plaintiff a lesson because of his earlier resistance. His conduct carried with it a sense of retribution; of reinforced arrogance.”

The judge said “right-minded people” would find these actions “abhorrent”.

Connolly denied he hit Fredericks and a fellow officer said he had not seen anything “untoward”.

The judge said the case came down to one man’s word against the other’s, but that Fredericks’ evidence had “the ring of truth about it”.

“On the other hand I think Constable Connolly downplayed his role in the matter.”

A doctor said the injuries to Fredericks’ face were consistent with being hit in the eye socket and nose.

Fredericks’ co-counsel Jonathan McCarthy said the judgment gave him the “greatest confidence in our justice system”.

Since the incident, Connolly has moved to Christchurch. The Press was told yesterday that he was taking “extended leave”.

Police spokesman Jon Neilson said the case was still “in the court process in terms of a right of appeal”. The officer was being dealt with under a human resources employment process.

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Police officers ‘too ashamed’ to admit occupation

29 October 2008

Police officers are too ashamed to admit their occupation to friends and neighbours because trust and respect for the force has fallen away, according to the Police Association.

The suggestions came at the association’s annual conference in Wellington on Wednesday.

Delegates were told that police mistakes or misconduct are often generalised to tar all police as corrupt or incompetent.

President Greg O’Connor says officers do not go for an off-duty drink at the pub because they are vulnerable, and standing up for themselves may be career-threatening.

Mr O’Connor says police administration and the State have done little to stop the erosion of respect for the force.

But criminology professor Greg Newbold says police control their own fate and if their image is deteriorating, the force may need to look at itself first.

Police National Headquarters declined to comment.

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Fatal police chase: cop escapes rebuke

Oct 26, 2008

A police officer escaped disciplinary action over his role in a fatal car pursuit because he had quit his position as constable.

Gavin MacDonnell was the lone officer in an unmarked police car when 17-year-old Jamie McElrea died in a high-speed crash at Dairy Flat, north of Auckland, on Easter Monday last year.

Until June, police denied they had been chasing a Subaru WRX, being driven by Troy Anderson at up to 160km/h, in which Jamie, Kayla Hewison and Matthew Anderson were passengers.

MacDonnell had been appointed to a non-sworn job at Henderson but was still working as a constable on the night of the fatal crash.

During several interviews with his superiors, when he was still a constable based at Orewa police station, he denied there was a pursuit.

The Independent Police Conduct Authority is investigating but, in an internal report, Inspector Pieter Roozendaal of the Waitemata Police District professional standards team, found MacDonnell did not comply with pursuits policy.

“Had he remained a sworn officer he would have then been subjected to further disciplinary action - probably in the form of counselling and training on the policy,” Roozendaal wrote.

“There is no prospect of his being involved in pursuits in [his current] role and cannot therefore be considered for disciplinary action. He has, however, been reminded of the need to comply with police policy and procedure.”

The report has outraged Jamie’s family which alleges a cover-up, pointing to inconsistencies in evidence, including witness statements.

“I think it’s disgusting [MacDonnell] got off,” said Jamie’s father, Mark. “If he had followed police pursuit policy, Jamie could very probably be alive today.”

Attempts to contact MacDonnell were unsuccessful and Waitemata District Commander Superintendent Bill Searle was unavailable for interview.

In an emailed statement, a police spokeswoman said: “The former police officer who participated in the pursuit had applied for and was appointed to a non-sworn [civilian] police role, prior to the fatal crash occurring.”

MacDonnell, who had four-and-a-half years’ experience and was rated a gold-class driver by the police, had stopped at traffic lights on East Coast Rd when he saw the WRX speeding.

He did not obtain permission from the police northern communications centre to give chase, as policy required.

Anderson lost control of the WRX on Kahikatea Flat Rd. When the car rolled and hit a bank, Jamie was thrown out, hitting a concrete power pole.

Fifteen minutes after the fatal crash, MacDonnell returned to Orewa police station and spoke to a Police Association representative who advised him to complete a job sheet about the events.

Several days after the crash, MacDonnell denied being involved in a pursuit when questioned by an investigating superior. But during an interview on July 5 last year he conceded that a pursuit had taken place.

MacDonnell resigned from the police on June 17, last year. He started work as a non-sworn scene of crime officer at Henderson police station the following day.

Anderson was convicted of reckless driving causing death, reckless driving causing injury, driving while disqualified and failing to stop for police. He was sentenced on March 18 to two years and six months in jail and disqualified from driving for four years.

Two new IPCA investigations are under way after a 4WD was hit by a police car in central Christchurch last Tuesday.

And in Palmerston North High Court, Constable Timothy Edward Hesketh is on trial charged with reckless disregard causing grievous bodily harm. Hesketh allegedly slammed on the brakes of a police wagon he was driving, injuring a prisoner locked in the back.

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Convicted cop on restricted duties

24 October 2008

Convicted criminal Timothy Hesketh will continue to carry out restricted duties in the police force pending sentencing in December.

The 27-year-old constable was found guilty of dangerous driving causing injury, by a jury in the High Court at Palmerston North on Wednesday night.

They decided Hesketh’s sudden braking in the early hours of November 4, 2007, sent an unrestrained and handcuffed prisoner flying into the wall of the police van.

His victim, Mark Edwards, 46, suffered a fractured dislocation of the spine.

It left him with loss of sensation and paralysis of all four limbs.

Hesketh faces a maximum sentence of five years’ jail and a $20,000 fine, but he will continue to serve in the force until sentencing on December 15.

Working strictly in a clerical role, he would not be frontline policing or dealing with the public, the Manawatu Standard was told yesterday.

Police area commander Inspector Pat Handcock said an Independent Police Conduct Authority investigation was carried out parallel to the criminal investigation.

“There are a whole range of things in and around this case that have to be worked through.”

A more firm decision would be made after sentencing, he said.

Police personnel who receive criminal convictions were dealt with on a case-by-case basis, depending on the charge.

Hesketh was found not guilty of the more serious charge of reckless disregard causing grievous bodily harm.

During the trial it was revealed that while on suspension from constable duties following Mr Edwards’ injuries, Hesketh caught a bag snatcher.

Hesketh had been biking home from the police station when he heard a woman crying for help.

He jumped off his bike, pursued a man on foot as he fled with the woman’s handbag, caught him and waited until police arrived to take him away.

The man was known to police and he was later charged.

Hesketh was sent a letter of thanks by the district area commander, which was read to the jury by defence counsel Susan Hughes QC.

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Police chase ends in crash

21 October 2008

A police chase has ended in a crash in central Christchurch.

Eye witnesses said a gold-coloured police Commodore collided with another car at the intersection of Armagh and Durham Street North.

Witnesses said the car flipped through the intersection and smashed through the window of the Workbridge office building.

The female driver remained trapped in the car for a period, witnesses said.

One eyewitness, Stephanie Gainsford, said the accident happened when a police car chased a motorbike that had run a red light.

“The cop car was about five seconds away from it. He put his siren on and sped up and went through a red light and hit this lady,” Gainsford said.

“He’d only just put his siren on,” she said.

“She obviously wouldn’t have had time to hear the siren because he’d only just put it on.”

Another witness, Kim McKay, was among a group of people who ran to help the woman in the car.

Friends said McKay scrambled over broken glass to give her jacket to the woman trapped in the car.

McKay said she was not sure whether the police officer driver was at fault.

“There was a motorbike that went through before him, so he was obviously chasing the motorbike,” McKay said.

“The lights and the siren went on and it was just like, bang,” McKay said.

Inspector John Price, at the scene, said he would make a statement later.

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Lawyer quizzes ex-cop

Oct 19, 2008

A top lawyer has contacted a former cop who claims he lied in court and sent at least 150 people to jail wrongfully.

Police have hired leading Wellington lawyer Bruce Squire QC to investigate Patrick O’Brien’s confession that he committed perjury by lying as a Crown witness in drugs trials in the 1970s and tampered with evidence.

Squire was appointed in March, and wrote to O’Brien asking about the nature of the lies and the names of the defendants in the court cases.

After getting no reply, he emailed again and advised O’Brien he was busy for six weeks with trial commitments.

In April, O’Brien wrote back: “Kindly advise by return email the time, date and location of venue, convenient for your purpose, that we may arrange an appointment.”

Squire replied this week, a few days after the Herald on Sunday reported O’Brien’s claims. O’Brien emailed back and apologised for not answering Squire’s questions. “I assumed the answers were self-evident from a reading of my original confession,” he wrote.

He said the nature of his lies were “most grievous”. He considered them perjury and a “mortal sin” but did not know the names of his targets.

Police have refused O’Brien’s request for the names of the cases he worked on, citing privacy reasons.

Police spokesman Jon Neilson declined to comment on the apparent lack of progress in the nine months since Squire’s appointment as the inquiry was ongoing.

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Detective’s verdict on crime and policing

19 October 2008

A FORMER TOP detective has told how Rotorua police tried to derail a Police Complaints Authority investigation into the area’s CIB boss, Detective Inspector John Dewar.

The allegations are contained in a new book by Dewar’s successor in Rotorua, former Detective Inspector Graham Bell, who describes Dewar as “an arrogant, overbearing nincompoop”.

Dewar, 55, is serving a 4 1/2-year jail term for his handling of historic sex allegations by Louise Nicholas against former officers Clint Rickards, Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum.

But Bell says before this, complaints had been made to the authority in the mid-1990s about incidents arising from his handling of another rape allegation against a senior sergeant, and over claims of womanising, drinking and “generally setting a less than desirable example for his staff”.

In his about-to-be-released memoirs Murder, Mayhem and Mischief, Bell, best known as host of the popular Police Ten7 show on TV2, writes that Dewar’s habit of favouring “obsequious” members of staff gave rise to sycophantic behaviour by his detective sergeants, while those who were more independent were marginalised.

“The other thing I was uncomfortable with was what I saw as a sexist attitude. Women were not encouraged to join the CIB and those that did found it a difficult place to succeed.”

Bell says when Dewar’s CIB staff were called in for interviews by Police Complaints Authority investigators, they immediately reported back to Dewar. “I saw a detective sergeant return from the HQ, go straight into Dewar’s office and produce a dictaphone from his pocket. He then played the interview to Dewar. I was shocked … I knew that Dewar had a fanatical loyalty from some of his staff but this was an amazing turn of events. As the inquiry wore on I saw more and more of this blind (and stupid) loyalty. I became aware of efforts being made by Dewar loyalists to interfere with records and diaries with which to mislead the PCA inquiry. Some members of staff were seen intimidating others and giving instructions on how they should respond to queries from the investigators. The more of this I saw the more obvious it became that Dewar’s days as the O/C of CIB must come to an end. It was, to encapsulate the situation in one word, corrupt.”

Bell told the Sunday Star-Times he was reluctant to include the Dewar allegations, but thought that if he left them out, it would be like ignoring “the elephant in the room”.

He also rejects claims there was a national police “culture” at the time of the Louise Nicholas case, saying that the sexist and macho environment in Rotorua at the time was the product of the individuals concerned and one which he never saw in other police districts. “They were bully boys. It was an unhappy coincidence that people of a like mind found themselves in a group at the same place, at the same time.”

But, he said, “98% of the people I worked with were honest, hard working police officers doing their best under difficult circumstances and that shines through”.

He said by the time he arrived in Rotorua, Schollum, Shipton and Rickards had moved on, and only Dewar was left.

Before Dewar departed, says Bell, he “walked into the office, pointed his finger at me and said, `I’ll be back; and when I do I will deal with you’.

“The malice was palpable. I always considered it was a possibility he would end up in jail, after I became aware of what was alleged.”

But Bell admitted he had seen other unfair and illegal behaviour in the police. “There was a tendency many years ago to shortcut long, drawn-out protestations of innocence with a quick, sharp thump to the solar plexus. I have never known this to happen to a murder suspect, but I have seen thieves and burglars cop one. I never agreed with it and saw it only as a potential embarrassment. In fact, in the early 70s there were only a handful of people in the Auckland CIB who would do this. We saw them as macho thugs.”

Murder, Mayhem and Mischief, by Graham Bell, (Halcyon Press, $39.95) is published this week.

NOTORIOUS CASES

Murder, Mayhem and Mischief canvasses a number of high-profile murders and other cases that Bell, pictured above, handled in his 33 years in the force, both as an investigator and during his years as Auckland police media liaison officer. They include:

The Swedish tourist murders: When police went to interview accused David Tamihere, he was out. When he came home to find detectives there, he tried to walk on as if it wasn’t his house, but was betrayed by his family dog who barked at him in an enthusiastic welcome.

Mongrel Mob gang rapes. “I came to despise the Mongrel Mob over the years. These arseholes drifted in and out of my police life at regular intervals because of the shocking crimes they regularly got themselves involved in. I also came to have a very strong distaste for the lawyers that defended them.”

The murder of 10-year-old Delphina Phillips in Ohakune. She was abducted and raped by Keith Hall in 1977 and her body was found, naked and spreadeagled, on a makeshift bed of sapling wood in nearby bush. Her hands and feet had been tied to the four corners of the bed and she had been stabbed in the heart with a sharpened putty knife. “That case still brings tears to my eyes,” says Bell.

In 1997, an Ilam Church pastor in Gisborne harangued his congregation about the dangers of bad behaviour in the wake of the murder of Andrea Torrey, by her husband Darren. After the sermon, a follower confessed to an improper relationship with his primary school-aged daughter. The follower was charged with raping his daughter but reacted badly to her allegations that she did not consent. “He then took his young daughter to the top of Gaddam’s Hill to `discuss’ the situation with her. He told her it was wrong of her to accuse him of rape when they had been lovers. Then he produced a knife, stabbed her deliberately in the heart, and killed her.”

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Undercover cop’s lies sent 150 to jail

Oct 12, 2008

Sian Elias received a letter from Patrick O’Brien in which he claimed to have lied under oath. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Police have hired one of the country’s top lawyers to investigate a former officer’s stunning confession that he lied in court - and wrongfully sent at least 150 people to prison.

Patrick O’Brien wrote to Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias admitting to perjury, saying he was racked with guilt after carrying a “dreadful secret” for more than 30 years.

Now nearly 60, O’Brien was an undercover agent in covert drugs operations in the 1970s, immersed in a dark, criminal underworld, and the star Crown witness in the resulting court trials.

However, O’Brien says he lied on oath every time he took the stand.

In the confession letter, he said he could not guess the number of people with convictions or imprisoned “because of my lies”, because he stopped counting arrests at 150, halfway through his three-year stint.

All but one of the juries - in a case where the Crown failed to prove a substance was a narcotic - returned with a guilty verdict.

Leading Wellington lawyer Bruce Squire, QC, has been hired by Police National Headquarters to investigate the allegations independently.

Squire, who also investigated allegations into the police undercover work in 2004, did not return Herald on Sunday calls.

In his confession, O’Brien told Dame Sian he answered to the “grey men” who trained him, on whose orders he lied to obtain the convictions at any cost.

“They called it Doomsday work and instructed me to take this dreadful secret to the grave,” O’Brien wrote.

“In every case I lied to the courts and I lied to the juries to obtain convictions against my targets.

“Telling lies was easy - ‘policemen don’t tell lies’ - and my targets never stood a chance.”

Tampering with evidence was also common, he said. Often the exhibit before the court was not the drugs that he bought from the target.

He also deceived his operators, usually high-ranked detectives stationed in the communities where O’Brien operated undercover.

“Most of these men were tough (real tough) but without exception they were honest and would have brooked no time for the methods I employed to obtain convictions,” O’Brien wrote.

Eventually, the shame and stress of the work broke O’Brien. He resigned from the police and fled New Zealand, “haunted, traumatised and scared”.

“My life since has been a tragic waste; running, always running, but never able to lose the demons that rush around in my head.

“I am nearly 60 years old now, and in what time is left to me, intend correcting the wrong I have done.”

O’Brien was honoured for his undercover work by former Governor-General Sir David Beattie, who presided over a series of drug trials held in the High Court at Hamilton in 1974.

Sir David wrote to Police Commissioner Ken Burnside with a glowing testimony about the young constable who was such a credible witness, despite defence counsel questioning his truthfulness.

Later asked why he wrote to the commissioner, Sir David told a radio show host he was “impressed with the standards this man had set himself, and the risks he had run, and the results he achieved”.

O’Brien confessed to Dame Sian: “In every case and on every charge, I lied to Sir David and I lied to his juries.”

His confession letter was obtained by the Herald on Sunday through the Official Information Act.

Police National Headquarters received the letter on Christmas Eve, but an investigation did not begin until February.

Police spokesman Jon Neilson would not comment further until the investigation was complete.

O’Brien said he would co-operate fully with the inquiry and plead guilty to any charges.

Yesterday he told the Herald on Sunday he was “a homeless itinerant” currently hitchhiking in the South Island.

“I am not in hiding, nor am I running.”

In his confession he said he intended to “start knocking on doors and apologise” to those he had helped to wrongfully convict.

“Should any target wish to seek remedy for my wrong, I will assist in whatever way I can.”

He was not surprised he had not been interviewed by Squire, despite almost 300 days passing since his confession.

He had posted open letters on websites and paid for adverts trying to make contact with his former targets.

“Following orders is no excuse, I knew what I was doing was wrong,” said O’Brien.

“Now I will face the truth.”

The inquiry terms of reference:

Leading lawyer Bruce Squire QC’s terms of reference for the inquiry require him to:

Identify and clarify that Patrick O’Brien lied and tampered with evidence.

Assess the implications and veracity of the allegations.

Determine whether the police should investigate further.

He will report his findings to Police Commissioner Howard Broad. Even if it can be proven, the people convicted and imprisoned on O’Brien’s false evidence may not necessarily be eligible for compensation.

Cabinet has a base sum of $100,000 awarded for each year wrongly spent in jail, though that amount can be higher.

However, rules introduced 10 years ago mean compensation is awarded to those wrongly convicted only if they can prove their innocence beyond reasonable doubt.

Arthur Allan Thomas received $1 million in 1980 for the 10 years he spent in jail. David Dougherty was awarded almost $900,000 in 2001 after DNA evidence proved him innocent.

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Shop fight arrest a warning, say police

Oct 04, 2008

Police say the arrest of an Otara liquor store owner should be a reminder to others that using too much force to defend themselves or their property will result in prosecution.

Gilbert Road Discount Liquor store owner Virender Singh was yesterday charged with two counts of injuring with intent to injure after a fight with several youths on Tuesday night.

The charges relate to injuries two of the youths received, one of whom had a swollen nose, mouth and damage to his teeth. Police say a 15-year-old is also expected to be charged.

News of Mr Singh’s arrest has outraged many members of the public who say it sends the wrong message to criminals and young people who intimidate store owners.

But Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Pizzini said the decision to charge Mr Singh followed a “thorough and professional investigation” that included interviews with everyone involved and independent witnesses.

Police have seized a number of items believed to have been used as weapons during the fight - including a knife, hockey stick and fence paling - and are reviewing CCTV footage of the fight.

Earlier in the week Mr Singh told the Herald he would fight charges as he was only defending himself after an intoxicated youth whom he believed was shoplifting entered his store.

He and his cousin were armed with the hockey stick and say they were stabbed while trying to hold down one of the youths until police arrived.

Mr Singh’s wife last night told the Weekend Herald she and her husband were shocked by the charges as he had been simply defending himself.

“It’s very surprising for us because he never did anything wrong.”

Mr Pizzini said he could not go into the details of exactly what happened that night as the matter was now before the courts.

“The arrest serves as a reminder to all that taking the law into their own hand in some circumstances cannot be justified.”

The law states that shop owners can use reasonable force to defend themselves, any other person and/or their property. But Mr Pizzini said those who chose to take the law into their own hands could face consequences.

“Those that clearly exceed that force can expect to be arrested and held to account in the criminal court.”

He reassured members of the public that their requests for help would be dealt with. “Shopkeepers and the general public can be reassured that the police will respond with urgency to situations where assistance is needed. Ring 111, observe what is happening and let police deal with these situations.”

Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman Garth McVicar said store keepers were often placed in a position where they had to make on-the-spot decisions and didn’t have time for police to arrive.

The law about how much force was “reasonable” was vague and made it difficult for shop owners who were trying to defend themselves in potentially dangerous situations.

“I think the law is causing considerable confusion and I think what will ultimately happen is that people will hesitate before they defend themselves and we will see innocent people dying.”

Already there had been a lot of sympathy for Mr Singh with people offering to help fund his legal case.

He said if necessary the trust would mount a campaign to help the store owner, something it did for Penrose gunstore owner Greg Carvell, who was charged with illegal possession of a pistol after he shot an armed intruder in his store.

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Public have right to see - judge

4:00AM Tuesday Sep 30, 2008

The High Court at Auckland has ordered that a videotape of a prisoner being beaten and pepper-sprayed in a police cell should be seen by the public.

More than eight hours of footage was filmed at the Whakatane police station where Rawiri Falwasser, 20, was badly injured while in custody on Labour Day in 2006.

In June, the closed-circuit television tapes of the incident were played to a Tauranga District Court jury that acquitted Sergeant Keith Parsons, 51, Sergeant Earle Busby, 46, Senior Constable Bruce Laing, 53, and Constable John Mills, 39, of nine charges of assaulting Mr Falwasser.

The policemen convinced the trial judge to prevent TV stations from showing those images to the public.

TVNZ and TV3 sought the release of the tapes because not releasing them would “inevitably lead to a view that the jury got it wrong and lead to public questioning of the verdict”.

Both broadcasters showed footage from the tapes last night and TV3 reported that the High Court decreed the trial decision not to release the tapes was “wrong in every way”.

It said the Perspex walls of Mr Falwasser’s cell at the Whakatane police station gave a clear view of what happened to him. He is shown being bashed in the head with a baton, leaving him bleeding.

Police said they were using reasonable force, Mr Falwasser said he feared for his life. The tape also shows Mr Falwasser being sprayed repeatedly with pepper spray through vents in the cell. At one point he tries to block the vents with clothing and at another he drops to the ground.

Mr Falwasser’s mother said that despite the verdict she was pleased the tape had finally been made public.

But Police Association president Greg O’Connor said the public would get only half the story.

“The problem is there’s no sound on the tape so the public will not hear the entreaties, they will not be told that Mr Falwasser’s brother, that a medical professional, that a mental health professional, had attempted to obtain his co-operation before this happened.”

Mr O’Connor said the release would result in trial by media.

“These officers thought the video was their friend in this situation, and it was - when seen in its entirety. However, seen segmented and edited it will be the enemy, not only of the officers but of police and the justice system in New Zealand.”

But the High Court ruled that the reputation and rights of police officers were outweighed by the public’s right to see the evidence that led a jury to acquit them.

Crown prosecutor Fletcher Pilditch earlier told the court the public interest in the case was wider than just the verdict: “It related to how a person was treated in custody.”

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Shipton case: Police open files

28 September 2008

STARTLING NEW details about the 14-month police investigation into Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum’s 1989 gang rape case are revealed in documents recently released to the victim.

The revelations come as the former policemen face parole hearings next month and November, which could see them released from prison after serving sentences of eight-and-a-half years and eight years respectively over the Mt Maunganui gang rape in a lifeguard hut.

The documents reveal:

* Police investigated claims a police officer paid a Rotorua woman $60,000-$70,000 “hush money” over an incident.

* That one witness alleged as police officers, Shipton and Schollum would pull over women drivers, targeting solo mothers, and strike up relationships with them.

* An allegation was made that a senior Hamilton police officer accessed secret police files to help defence lawyers fight the case and seriously jeopardised the prosecution’s case.

Shipton, Schollum, and Tauranga millionaire Peter McNamara, a former head lifeguard, were convicted in July 2005 of raping the then 20-year-old woman in a beach lifeguard hut at Mt Maunganui in January 1989. A fourth man, former lifeguard Warren Hales, later admitted abducting her. Schollum and Shipton remain in jail but McNamara was paroled in January and Hales was freed in 2006.

The victim applied last October for her police file under the Official Information Act.

She told the Sunday Star-Times that reading the thousands of pages of documents was satisfying because so many witnesses backed up her claims or recalled a sexual incident at the lifeguard hut that year.

“For me, it’s really confirmed I did the right thing by coming forward.”

The documents revealed one witness said he recalled being told a Rotorua woman was paid $60,000-$70,000 “hush money” in relation to an incident involving a police officer.

It was understood police were unable to verify the claims and no charges resulted.

The man said he often saw Shipton and Schollum “cruising the bars” at night while working “and it was obvious they were looking for girls”. He called the pair “predators”.

Another witness, a former police officer, told police “it was common knowledge Shipton and Schollum would stop lone women drivers and then strike up a relationship with them, in particular with solo mothers”. He said they were known to go around to the women’s houses for coffee and it “went from there”. The witness confirmed his allegations to the Star-Times.

The victim’s file highlighted the extensive search by police to establish the identity of an alleged fifth offender. Several witnesses claimed they were told five people were involved in the sex incident two police officers and three lifeguards.

At trial, the victim said she was raped by two policemen and three lifeguards, but the four accused, including McNamara, maintained only four people were involved.

Police tracked down all lifeguards who worked at the Mount that summer, including using Interpol to contact a former lifeguard abroad, but were unable to identify the third lifeguard. It was also revealed Hales’ brother, Stephen Hales, had phoned the lifeguard overseas asking him to call about the case soon after the four accused were arrested in 2004. Stephen Hales had accessed the victim’s personal file last November during his work as a police officer and was put on special leave when the privacy breach was discovered. He resigned in January.

The police investigation’s head, Detective Inspector Steve Vaughan, declined to comment on information revealed in the documents.

Other information included:

* Shipton was forced to supply a DNA sample for the police database.

* Allegations a senior Hamilton police officer did national intelligence application (NIA) checks on four people central to the investigation and gave the information to defence lawyers before the trial. “The fact that a senior member of the police is prepared to act in this manner is extraordinary. His actions have compromised this investigation,” Vaughan wrote to police superiors. The information allowed defence to narrow a timeframe of when the offence allegedly occurred to January 5, 1989.

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Sergeant fights release of cell assault case video

26 September 2008

A police sergeant acquitted of assaulting a prisoner in a cell wants to block the release of video footage shown to the jury.

News media outlets are seeking more than eight hours of footage filmed at the Whakatane police station where Rawiri Falwasser, 20, was badly injured while in custody on Labour Day in 2006.

Mr Falwasser has said he feared for his life after being struck with batons and pepper-sprayed. He suffered gashes in his head and arm over an eight-hour period.

In June, closed-circuit television tapes of the incident were played to a Tauranga District Court jury that acquitted Sergeant Keith Parsons, 51; Sergeant Earle Busby, 46; Senior Constable Bruce Laing, 53; and Constable John Mills, 39, of nine charges of assaulting Mr Falwasser.

His mother, Kihi Falwasser, was not at yesterday’s court hearing but said the family wanted the tapes to be released to media: “People need to see it themselves to form their own opinion of what happened inside the cell.”

In the High Court at Auckland yesterday Mr Parsons’ lawyer, Susan Hughes, QC, said the tapes should not be released because the media would not broadcast the full tapes as seen by the jury. “A release of the tapes and their showing would subvert the jury system.”

But lawyer Adam Hopkinson, acting for TVNZ and TV3, said not releasing the tapes would “inevitably lead to a view that the jury got it wrong and lead to public questioning of the verdict”.

“There is clearly a public interest in debating the outcome of a prosecution, whether there is an acquittal or a guilty verdict,” Mr Hopkinson said.

Debate and scrutiny of the criminal justice system was “a hallmark of democracy and is a hallmark of a healthy and functioning judicial system”.

Crown prosecutor Fletcher Pilditch told the court the public interest in the case was wider than just the verdict: “It related to how a person was treated in custody.”

The four officers, who are all suspended while still being paid, will face a hearing by the Police Complaints Authority, even though the authority has since been replaced.

The jury was told Mr Falwasser was arrested on suspicion of taking a neighbour’s car and driving dangerously.

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Police under fire for escape

23 September 2008

Police are investigating the escape of an 18-year-old man being transported to Manawatu Prison, amid claims he fled after police allowed him to spend time with his girlfriend unattended in a police car.

He eluded police initially on Friday afternoon but was captured soon after when police cordoned off an inner-city residential area.

Members of his family yesterday accused the two police guarding him of incompetence, saying they had put the prisoner in a situation from which they must have known he would attempt to escape.

The man’s mother said the officers involved “didn’t do their job properly”.

“It is not right to take a prisoner to Burger King for lunch and then do a u-turn when they see his girlfriend and allow him to have a visit with her in the back seat of the car.

“The police walked away from the vehicle to give them privacy. What did they expect a scared 18-year-old to do?”

The woman said the police didn’t contact her after the escape bid. “I had to read about this in the paper with the rest of Palmerston North. The public needs to know the way this escape happened.”

The man’s girlfriend confirmed what his mother had said. Palmerston North area commander Pat Handcock did not deny the allegations, but said he was limited in what he could say while an investigation was underway.

“The circumstances leading to this escape are subject to an investigation, to ascertain the full circumstances, or if there was anything that police staff may have done to avoid the situation that occurred,” Mr Handcock said.

“At this point in time I am limited in terms of commenting on the claims made, other than to say that the circumstances that existed at the time might have led the officers to believe that they had control of the prisoner as a potential flight risk.

“The offender in this case will be facing an escaping charge so therefore we are precluded from commenting on matters that are subject to court proceedings.”

The escaper’s girlfriend said she had dropped friends off near Park Road when they saw a police car pull up with him in the back seat. She said she was allowed to get into the car with him and gave him a hug and a kiss. He had no handcuffs and was allowed to use the window and to smoke. She said he was “really nervous”.

The two police officers got out to give them some privacy and sat on a fence in front of the car.

“They are not supposed to be your friend, but to do their job and keep the public safe,” she said.

Suddenly, the prisoner slipped from the car and ran off into a property on Park Road. The officers gave chase, but were not able to catch him, his girlfriend said.

She said one of the officers came back and swore at her, yelling for her to get out of the car. The escaper was to appear in court today.

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Inquest comment shocks wife

24 September 2008

Alan Hampton, who clung to his dead son’s body for hours in a botched rescue, has been told at his son’s inquest that he would never “understand the stress” of searching for missing boaties.

Wanganui Coastguard radio operator Audrey Cox made the comment yesterday at the inquest for Geoffrey Hampton, 19, who died in freezing waters off the Wanganui coast after a boat sank on February 23. The comment caused Mr Hampton’s wife, Jenny, to utter a stunned “excuse me” before storming out of the courtroom.

Louise Powell, whose husband Duncan spent more than 12 hours in the sea with the father and son, followed to comfort her.

On February 23, the men went fishing but were forced overboard when the boat was lashed by freak waves.

The rescue mission has since come under intense scrutiny with questions raised why an Iroquois helicopter or rescue helicopter from Taranaki - both equipped with night vision - were not called by police, who began an air search only the next morning.

That night, Mrs Cox, who has more than 30 years’ experience, was off-duty but helped a colleague when the boat was missing.

When questioned by Mr Hampton in court yesterday, she told him: “Unless you have been in the situation, you really would not understand the stress and strain of being on duty.” She went on to emphasise the pressure of being on duty in a situation where someone was in danger.

Mrs Cox was also critical of the search saying police did “funny things” but though she voiced concerns to Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand that they were searching too close in, she never aired them to police.

She was also recorded on open radio joking to another operator: “We’ll keep out of this and let them [police] make all the mistakes they can.”

Asked by Ben Vanderkolk, the lawyer for the coroner, if that comment was tantamount to courting disaster, she said it was a private conversation.

Radio operator Pamela Gilligan told the inquest she alerted police at 8.47pm that the boat was overdue. A rescue boat was launched at 9.52pm. She was told the boat would be back at 1.30am, but it returned at 3.06am. Mr Hampton asked her: “I take it it is because they decided to search at their own discretion, even though police had stood them down.” She said yes.

Both radio operators said Wanganui Coastguard noted boat names instead of call signs - unlike coastguards in most regions.

Both were unaware of an 0800 helpline which they could have used. Earlier, Mr Powell described the Wanganui Coastguard systems as a “shambles”.

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Scanning of police cells faulted

24 September 2008

A North Canterbury man who claims he was assaulted by a police officer at the Christchurch station says the video system monitoring the cells is inadequate.

Student Brent Dohrman, 43, whose complaint is being investigated by the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA), said he was arrested in December last year for disorderly behaviour after saying bull….

He said that as he was being moved into a cell he was hit three times from behind by an officer.

“He smashed me from behind. I turned around and remonstrated with him, and then he kicked me and then he used a forearm as I was walking away.

“If you have a look, that’s his three movements. It happened; I was there. I felt it and I thought, `You fool’.”

Dohrman’s is one of two cases of alleged assault in the Christchurch cells being investigated by the authority, with fencing contractor Jason Brougham, 35, also claiming he was assaulted last December.

Dohrman, a former heroin addict who is facing a variety of charges after being arrested 16 times in one year in what he says was a campaign of harassment, obtained the video footage of his arrest.

Because the police computer system is not large enough, it stores just one frame each second (a normal video records 25 a second), making it hard to tell what happened, he said.

Dohrman said the system was next to useless.

“If he gets away with it, I want to push for better computers so we have our rights,” he said. “Those cameras are a waste of time.

“They seem to think they can beat the s… out of people and threaten people and because we’re criminals we have no rights.”

He said the assault was relatively minor but he would have been charged had he done it to a police officer or a member of the public.

“I do want this policeman charged for assault,” he said. “Once you are down in the cells, there’s no rights. There’s only one of you and many of them.

“Mine wasn’t a serious assault, but it was an assault nonetheless.”

Dohrman made a complaint in March and was told it should take four months, but he is still awaiting the outcome.

Inspector Gary Knowles would not comment on the police video system in the cells.

IPCA communications manager Bernard Steeds said Dohrman’s complaint was being considered.

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Cruel to let us think son alive - mum

23 September 2008

The mother of a teenage fisherman who died in his father’s arms when a boat sank was told by police that everyone had survived - a “cruel” action that led her to believe her son was alive.

It was only when Jenny Hampton arrived in Wanganui from her home in Rongotea, near Palmerston North, and saw a white sheet on a Coastguard boat that she learned her son Geoffrey had died.

Mrs Hampton has criticised the search and rescue effort, saying there was little communication by police, and they had reassured her they would do all they could.

“Those words, they just burn on my tongue now,” she told an inquest in Palmerston North yesterday.

On February 23, the boat Hard Out was sunk by freak waves off Wanganui.

Boat owner Duncan Powell and Alan Hampton and his son, Geoffrey - who worked with Mr Powell - were on board.

It was Geoffrey’s 19th birthday and he had been given a new fishing rod as a present.

About 4pm the waves hit, suddenly dumping water into the boat.

Mr Hampton said they grabbed lifejackets and jumped into the sea - there was no time to radio for help.

“A snap decision had to be made, it was bang, bang, bang, and we were in the water,” he said.

Mr Hampton began to worry about his son about 7pm.

“Ever since he was a little fella he has always felt the cold.”

As the hours ticked by, the men banded together and tried to swim ashore but were swept back by the current.

“We made the conscious decision we were going to stay together, all three of us.”

Geoffrey, wrapped in his father’s arms, died about 4am.

The men believed their trip report would have shown them to be overdue at 8pm and a rescue mission mounted. Mrs Powell had also called the Coastguard, concerned she had not heard from her husband.

But the men spent more than 12 hours in the dark seas before they were hauled from the water by a lone fisherman, Lyndon Bowman.

The rescue effort is under the spotlight in a five-day inquest this week.

Police, Coastguard and Maritime NZ are all represented by lawyers. Top police communications adviser Jon Neilsen was also present at the court.

Mrs Hampton said she was told the Coastguard search would be called off at 3am and an air search would begin at 6.30am.

Mrs Hampton told the inquest that she believed the boat search stopped at 1am, but a police spokesperson said evidence could be presented showing the Coastguard searched till 3am.

Mrs Hampton called Wanganui police at 6.40am, after which a senior sergeant made several calls to her, updating her on the search.

About an hour later, she was told the men had survived but one had hypothermia.

Mrs Hampton packed warm clothes and drove to Wanganui from her home, telling her sister she could not believe her luck they were all alive. “It was too good to be true,” she told the court.

It was only when she arrived in Wanganui that she was told about her son’s death.

“It was cruel to lead us to believe that they were all okay,” she said.

Mrs Hampton said the rescue lacked urgency and the family had been treated appallingly.

At the time, police were criticised for not calling nearby Ohakea Air Base or the Taranaki Rescue Helicopter Trust.

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Judge lambasts top cops in damning report

21 September 2008

The actions of some of the country’s highest-ranking police have been criticised in a damning Independent Police Conduct Authority report due out later today.

The report - released after a two-year investigation - makes adverse comments about 10 Dunedin police, including four inspectors, a detective senior sergeant and two detective sergeants.

Justice Lowell Goddard is understood to criticise police for their involvement in private investigations of ACC clients - and for how they handled their subsequent inquiries into complaints.

The inquiry was launched after conflict of interest allegations that Peter Gibbons - a former Dunedin CIB head who became a private investigator working for ACC’s fraud unit - used his police constable son-in-law to improperly obtain search warrants and seize property from ACC clients. The clients alleged that when they complained, senior police - including three of Gibbons’ former CIB colleagues - failed to act.

They also alleged that warrants were issued on false and misleading information.

Gibbons’ son-in-law, Andrew Henderson, is one of those named in Goddard’s report and Gibbons himself is facing a hearing this month to determine whether he is fit to hold a private investigator’s licence.

Gibbons runs Dunedin company Mainland Information Consultants and holds ACC fraud unit contracts worth more than $170,000 a year.

A police spokesman said yesterday that police couldn’t comment specifically on the report because it had not yet been publicly released. But police accepted there were aspects of the handling of the cases referred to in the report “which could be improved, particularly with regard to managing perceived conflicts of interest”.

Processes would be reviewed in light of the report.

New legislation was also introduced to parliament last week relating to the way search warrants are obtained and executed.

The report which had been due out on August 7, was held up when some of the officers wanted the chance to comment on the findings. It is now due for release at 5pm today.

The ACC clients who have received copies of the report, Bruce Van Essen, Hazel Sinclair and two others, declined to comment yesterday.

Gibbons, who was a detective senior sergeant in the CIB in the 1990s, supervised three of the police criticised in the Goddard report Detective Senior Sergeant Kallum Croudis, Detective Sergeant Malcolm Inglis and Detective Sergeant Brett Roberts.

A previous internal police inquiry showed Croudis assigned Henderson ACC-related cases knowing about his conflict of interest as Gibbons’ son-in-law. Inglis and Roberts conducted the initial inquiries into Van Essen’s complaints.

Croudis, Inglis and Roberts have been involved in both the original inquiry and reinvestigation of the David Bain mass murder case. Croudis arrested Bain in 1995.

The Star-Times understands the report also makes less serious comments about Detective Inspector Ross Pinkham, one of the South Island’s highest-ranking officers, for his dealings with the complaints by members of a support group for ACC clients and their families.

Pinkham is currently investigating a complaint against Deputy Commissioner Rob Pope by Scott Watson’s father Chris Watson, alleging that Pope swore a misleading affidavit to gain the right to obtain a series of interception warrants to bug Scott Watson’s yacht, home and telephones.

Other officers against whom adverse findings have been made are understood to include:

* Inspector Dave Campbell, area commander for Dunedin and Clutha. In February last year, Campbell supervised the first internal police inquiry into Van Essen’s complaints, that police had allowed ACC staff to search his home unsupervised, had acted on false and misleading information and had stolen two memory sticks. Campbell did not uphold any of Van Essen’s complaints.

* Inspector Lane Todd. Todd, southern district operations manager, who conducted a second inquiry into Van Essen’s complaints last November.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4700432a11.html

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Rape victim disgusted at Schollum’s “gutless” U-turn

21 September 2008

Jailed pack-rapist and ex-cop Bob Schollum has pulled out of a planned restorative justice meeting with his victim.

The victim, who called Schollum’s U-turn “incredibly gutless” said the Parole Board raised the option of a restorative justice meeting with him during her victim’s hearing in July. She agreed and was told last month he had also agreed, but she had been unaware he had retracted that offer until told by the Star-Times yesterday.

Such a meeting offered “tons of value” for her and the perpetrators, regardless of whether they confessed their guilt, she said.

“I wanted the opportunity to sit in front of him and tell him I forgive what he has done to me. You think it should end when you hear the words `guilty’. This was the first time I thought I might have a personal hand in it for some closure. I feel let down and disappointed. Why did he want to meet me in the first place?”

The victim also offered to meet one of Schollum’s co-offenders, fellow former police officer Brad Shipton, but did not know if he had agreed.

It is understood Schollum reversed his decision after ditching Wellington lawyer Michael Bott last month and returning to his trial lawyer, Tauranga-based Paul Mabey.

Bott and Mabey declined to comment on the case. Shipton’s lawyer, Bill Nabney, said he was unaware of the offer.

Schollum, Shipton and Tauranga millionaire Peter McNamara, a former head surf lifeguard, were convicted in 2005 of raping the then-20-year-old woman in Mt Maunganui in 1989. A fourth man, former lifeguard Warren Hales, later admitted abducting her. Schollum and Shipton remain in jail but McNamara gained parole in January and Hales has also served his sentence.

Department of Corrections rehabilitation general manager Phil McCarthy confirmed discussions were under way with restorative justice agency Project Restore over a possible meeting between Schollum and his victim, and was unaware of Schollum’s changed stance.

However, he said restorative justice was impossible without both parties agreeing. It was unusual for such meetings to occur when an offender claimed innocence.

Project Restore founding member Dr Shirley Julich, an Auckland University of Technology senior lecturer/researcher on sexual violence and restorative justice, said it was “an incredible step” for offenders and victims to agree to meet.

“Restorative justice is not a soft option as its detractors would have us believe. If the offender is not willing, it suggests to me that he or she fears they might be unable to maintain the construct of denial in the face of the victim’s truths.

“For a victim to meet an offender, they’re incredibly brave. For the offender, they’re either incredibly arrogant or he’s moving his understanding of what he did,” Julich said.

Schollum was declined his first bid for parole in March but appealed the decision, which was overturned on review. He will appear before the Parole Board again in November.

His lawyer told the board in March that Schollum was “ashamed and embarrassed about the incident and that it occurred while he was on duty in police uniform” but reiterated he was “an innocent man”. The board’s decision, overturned in June, noted Schollum showed no remorse and took no responsibility for his behaviour other than regretting wearing the uniform.

Shipton’s first parole hearing in May was adjourned for a new psychologist’s report because of his dramatically changed stance. It was due to reconvene next month. At the time, the board said his statements at the hearing were tantamount to confessing to rape.

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Police bill labelled ‘draconian’

18 September 2008

A bill extending police powers to spy on suspected criminals and conduct some searches without a warrant is “draconian” election-year pandering, says a civil rights watchdog.

The Search and Surveillance Powers Bill, tabled in Parliament by Justice Minister Annette King yesterday, seeks to reform the laws and transfer powers from the Serious Fraud Office, which will soon be disbanded, to the police.

Among several controversial proposals are the ability to search without a warrant in certain cases, detain people present at a search and access someone’s electronic information remotely.

New Zealand Council For Civil Liberties chairman Michael Bott questioned the bill’s arrival so close to an election.

“It appears to be another macho lurch to the Right by a government attempting to pander to the law-and-order debate in a very simplistic fashion at election time.”

The proposals include: The ability to apply for a search warrant electronically or verbally.

A power for police officers to search without a warrant where they think evidence of a serious crime could be endangered in the time it took to get a warrant.

Power to declare an area a crime scene and ensure evidence is not hidden or destroyed while a warrant is secured.

Power to detain people present or who arrive at a search until it can be determined whether they are involved in a crime.

Specific powers for officers to access and copy material held on computers or data-storage devices.

Permission to remotely access computer data in limited circumstances.

Provisions on warrants for placing surveillance devices, including the ability to enter property to place the devices.

The removal of a need for a warrant for surveillance devices in certain circumstances, such as public areas that are already under surveillance.

The bill follows a five-year Law Commission study that last year concluded current laws were “a mess” that varied significantly and, in some cases, allowed non-police agencies more power than police.

Legislation was urged to standardise powers and drag the police force into the electronic age with regard to electronic tracking and surveillance devices and evidential material that was held in electronic form.

Current laws lagged behind technology, left too much to officers’ discretion and treated evidence as if it was all in hard copy when, in reality, electronic evidence was now prevalent, the commission’s report said.

The Government went further than the Law Commission recommendations and used the bill to transfer powers from the Serious Fraud Office to police.

Police would have a power of examination and the ability to issue information production orders to get specific information in complex investigations.

“At first blush it seems dramatic and draconian,” Bott said.

The laws would give police the power to undertake “fishing expeditions” and they significantly watered down the presumption of innocence, he said.

The “law-and-order brigade” had got what it asked for virtually without contest.

“Judging by this Government’s record on human rights and the current standard of debate, what we have in essence is a campaign to run the zoo from the monkey house. One hasn’t got great confidence in the Government over this,” he said.

Bott said the laws on the ability to remotely access electronic information would, in effect, give police the power to read someone’s emails.

“In terms of surveillance of your intellectual property, your emails and things…are as personal to you as the contents of your underwear drawer,” he said.

Oral application for warrants was also a concern as “Chinese whispers-style” errors could lead to abuse of powers, he said.

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Nicholas urges Law Society to bar Rickards

Sep 14, 2008

Nicholas objects to Rickards’ ‘good character’ certificate
Clint Rickards should not become a lawyer because he left the police rather than face a disciplinary hearing over his conduct, says Louise Nicholas.

The Herald on Sunday has obtained an exclusive extract of Nicholas’ submission to the Auckland District Law Society.

She wrote that Rickards should not be admitted to the bar because of his previous “abhorrent behaviour.

“Clinton Rickards had his opportunity to clear his name and prove his alleged innocence by way of the police internal disciplinary hearing last year but chose not to clear his name in the 11th hour and resigned from the New Zealand police,” Nicholas wrote.

“I suggest to you the reason for this quick departure from the disciplinary hearing and being allowed to resign from the police [was] because Clinton Rickards and his legal counsel knew the evidence that was stacked against him.”

Nicholas - now working as a “survivor advocate” for Rape Prevention Auckland - said every person deserved a second chance to get on with their lives. “But with Clinton Rickards… my concern is for women who have been sexually violated and will inevitably come up against him in a court room.”

She also wrote it was “absolutely shameful” that Rickards publicly supported co-accused Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum immediately after the trio were acquitted and criticised the police.

“For this man to stand on the steps of the Auckland High Court and publicly announce that ‘my good mates Shipton and Schollum should not be in jail, they are good men’ is absolutely shameful,” wrote Nicholas.

Rickards, Shipton and Schollum were last March acquitted of raping Nicholas in the early 1980s. It was revealed later that Shipton and Schollum had been convicted in 2005 of the pack rape of another woman in Mt Maunganui in 1989.

Former Assistant Commissioner Rickards resigned from the police in November, instead of facing 10 internal charges at a police disciplinary hearing, and has since finished his law degree at the University of Auckland.

He has applied to the High Court in Auckland for admission as a barrister and solicitor - normally a rubber-stamping exercise - but needs a “good character” certificate from the Law Society to become a practising lawyer.

Written submissions from the public closed on Friday.

Rickards did not wish to comment on Nicholas’ submission, but, in an exclusive interview with the Herald on Sunday last week, he said he deserved another chance.

“Let’s be clear, I haven’t done anything, okay?” he said.

“I have worked hard all my life. I have contributed to society. My family have contributed to society and continue to do so. We want to make an impact on society.

“I just want to work with my people, you know.”

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Claim of corrupt police conduct

15 September 2008

The independent police watchdog is investigating the arrest of a man whose farm was seized under the proceeds of crime act, after claims of corrupt police conduct.

Shaun Allen has spent 15 years and a $500,000 Lotto windfall after he came out of jail fighting to clear his name.

Mr Allen, who served an 18-month sentence and had his $365,000 Hawke’s Bay farm seized after he was convicted of growing marijuana in 1993, says he found evidence of doctored documents and manufactured evidence in the police case.

He is planning to apply for a prerogative of mercy, in which the governor-general pardons a person who has been wrongly convicted.

“I want to clear my name. When I went to jail it was bad enough, to have my kids come to jail and ask me to come home, that was hard. But even though I’m out, it never leaves me. Day and night, every night, I can’t switch it off. I want it to end.”

Mr Allen had owned his 840-acre farm for just a few months when police raided the property and found 1000 cannabis plants.

He has always maintained his innocence and says the crops were being grown by a previous owner or a trespasser. He thinks he was set up by police determined to convict someone. With the help of a team of lawyers and private investigators, he says he has uncovered evidence of corrupt police practice.

The Independent Police Conduct Authority has confirmed it is investigating. Police did not return requests for comment.

National MP Chester Borrows, a former police officer, said he had seen Mr Allen’s evidence and described the case as “very concerning”.

“There are documents here and procedures here where police have worked well away from the norm,” he said.

Mr Allen said he had spent “many hundreds of thousands” of dollars in fighting to clear his name.

“But it’s not the money - it’s the emotional part that’s the worst part. It is horrible what it’s done to me. I used to be a strong person. It’s knocked me around.”

Mr Allen’s farm was the first property seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act in 1993. Since then, the Government has seized lifestyle blocks, Rolex watches, gold bullion, tropical fish and cars.

The act allows courts to seize assets bought with the proceeds of crime, sell them and the money given to the Crown.

He admits he sold cannabis in his youth, but that was in the past.

Wayne Kiely, a private investigator hired by Mr Allen, said he was convinced his client had been wronged. Mr Kiely said at one stage, when things were not going well, he asked Mr Allen when he would give up.

“Shaun said: `I don’t care how long it takes me, I don’t care if it takes till I die, I’m going to clear my name’.”

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Man quits call centre over gay sex scandal

ALARM bells are ringing again over the police 111 call centre, after the resignation of a senior staff member accused of hounding an emergency caller for sexual favours.

Just days after dealing with claims a 111 call was diverted to a centre in Manila, red-faced police are now having to explain the behaviour of a 34-year-old employee who allegedly harassed an emergency caller for oral sex over a two-week period.

It has now emerged the same staff member was also the subject of serious misconduct charges following a number of allegations involving sexual impropriety in the workplace, including one claim he had been using the police national computer database to source potential partners.

The allegations were to have been the subject of an official investigation by Police National Headquarters but the man’s resignation last week effectively put an end to what National’s police spokesman Chester Burrows described as “another amazing blow to the public confidence in police”.

The revelation of the staff member’s alleged sexual misconduct has come at a time when police have been working to rebuild public confidence in the 111 system.

The man at the centre of the latest furore who is married, with children declined to comment to Sunday News, but the newspaper’s inquiries have confirmed police bosses were told he had:

Made more than 15 calls to an emergency caller who had earlier rung the 111 call centre to report a domestic dispute. During one of those calls, the 111 call-taker allegedly suggested they meet for coffee and depending on how that went possibly have oral sex afterwards.

Asked a colleague whether he wanted to watch a pornographic movie, which he claimed starred a communications centre employee.

Sent inappropriate sexual messages to colleagues, including suggesting to one male staff member he had a “cute arse” and telling another he would be prepared to swap shifts in return for “a favour”.

Told colleagues of gay websites he enjoyed visiting.

Approached colleagues at the 111 call centre and asked whether they wanted to engage in oral sex.

Used the police computer database in an attempt to source potential dates.

A spokeswoman for acting police national manager of communication centres, Superintendent Steve Christian, told Sunday News the allegations had been serious enough to warrant investigation.

But because the staff member had resigned, police “were not able to proceed as they would like”.

The spokeswoman did not wish to discuss the matter further.

Well-placed sources, however, have confirmed concerns were first raised about the staff member’s behaviour about a fortnight after the emergency caller’s 111 plea for help to the Auckland call centre on January 27.

Concerns were expressed after a police officer was approached at a gay event by the caller, who claimed he had been subjected to repeated phone calls on a daily basis from the call centre staff member. The officer then filed a report to police bosses, which sparked an internal investigation.

According to a statement contained in police documents obtained by Sunday News, the 111 caller told investigating officers he felt “weird”, “strange”, “blown away”, “uncomfortable” and “pissed off” by the persistent phone calls.

“I felt strange police were going out of their way,” he said in a statement. “Initially I thought police were looking after me but after the third call I felt the calls were unusual and I was wondering why there was so much concern for one person.

“He wanted to take advantage of my vulnerability and just wanted to hook up for sex. I think it was totally unprofessional. It makes you wonder how often he is doing this to others.”

The 111 caller said the staff member had asked him if they could meet up for coffee, suggesting “if it goes OK” oral sex could follow.

The caller said the staff member told him he was married with children but had bisexual tendencies.

Communication centre staff gave evidence to police investigators that the staff member “had tendencies for males” and had invited male employees to watch pornography and then go to staff toilets for oral sex.

Burrows said the allegations highlighted a “serious breach of trust”. “The public will quite rightly question just who is answering their calls when they ring for help,” he said.

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Dewar loses appeal in Louise Nicholas case

September 05, 2008

Former Rotorua CIB boss John Dewar has lost his appeal against conviction and sentence for his handling of historic sex allegations by Louise Nicholas.

Mr Dewar was sentenced last October to 4-1/2 years in jail on four charges of attempting to obstruct or defeat the course of justice, after being found guilty in August by a jury in the High Court at Hamilton.

Trial judge Justice Rodney Hansen said that Dewar had a “remarkable capacity for self-delusion and avoidance which may have explained his conduct”.

Dewar, 55, now self-employed father of four of Hamilton, was chief inspector of the Rotorua CIB when Mrs Nicholas approached police in 1993 with two historic sex allegations, including those against former assistant commissioner Clint Rickards and former policemen Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum.

The three men were later found not guilty on those charges - although Shipton and Schollum were already serving jail terms for another rape.

The Crown said Dewar suppressed allegations Mrs Nicholas made against the three men and attempted to prevent the course of justice during the trial of another former policeman, who has permanent name suppression, by giving inadmissible evidence.

Dewar appealed against his convictions on three grounds:

* The trial judge inappropriately gave a direction which prejudiced his fair trial by characterising ambiguous conduct as potential lies;

* the failure of the prosecutor to cross-examine Dewar when he gave evidence on the testimony of three prosecution witnesses, thereby giving rise to an unfairness amounting to a miscarriage of justice; and

* that there was fresh evidence available which indicated that Dewar had previously made a statement consistent with the tenor of his evidence at trial, including that Mrs Nicholas did not want to pursue criminal action against Shipton, Schollum and Rickards and that he had no more than a professional relationship with them.

Dewar also appealed against his concurrent sentence on the grounds that the lead sentence of 4-1/2 years was manifestly excessive.

The Appeal Court judges found that the sentencing judge had weighed all the appropriate factors and the sentence was “well inside an appropriate range”.

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“Wanted”

August 30 2008

The attempted smear campaign being waged in Methven against a local member of the constabulary is a disgraceful practice which should be stamped out immediately.
The officer who is the subject of such a campaign is highly respected, diligent and has always had his local community at heart.
Calls for people to come forward with dirt on the officer, on posters under the banner “Wanted”, are inappropriate and a slur on the law enforcer as well as the Methven community.
This police officer was recently hailed a hero after a much-publicised arrest of two lawbreakers during a late-night incident.
In that incident he was on his own, with no back-up, and managed to nab two offenders who had already caused trouble in the neighbourhood and were set to cause further damage.
A police officer’s lot is challenging and often confrontational, and will occasionally bring him or her into difficult contact with offenders or alleged offenders.
Law enforcement is unlike any other business.
An officer can be called out to attend a wide range of unsavoury jobs, including domestic violence incidences which make up more than 25% of call-outs, car crashes (including often horrific fatalities), break-ins, drug busts and assaults.
Few outside of the force would relish such circumstances.
The dangers of assault and death to police officers were raised again this week with the planned introduction of Tasers.
The pamphlets are bordering on defamation, and the placement of them under windscreen wipers is annoying and poses as potential littering.
They are also insulting to the Methven community which supports its local law enforcement officers who are often difficult to attract to rural areas.
If the person responsible for the posters has any personal grievance with the police officer named, then he should take the matter up with the appropriate authorities, not drag the good name of a respected Methven community member through the mud.
The only name which will end up being dragged through the mud is that of the author.

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Police pair sentenced to jail over cover-up

August 30, 2008

Benson Murphy (left) and Reuben Harris, pictured yesterday, were allowed to go home because their jail sentence is under appeal.

Two policemen have been sentenced to 15 months in prison for covering up for a constable who beat a relative of theirs in the back of their patrol car.

The victim fled from the alleged assault into the path of an oncoming street-sweeping truck and was killed.

Constables Reuben James Harris and Benson Lyle Murphy had initially protected colleague Constable Clinton Hill, who allegedly assaulted George Tipene Harris while off-duty in the back of their police car. Hill now faces a manslaughter charge.

Reuben Harris and Murphy pleaded guilty this month to conspiring to defeat the course of justice. Another police officer, who allegedly spoke to Hill at the scene, is also charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

Lawyers lodged an appeal immediately after the sentencing yesterday and the two men were granted bail until their next court appearance.

The court heard that following a night drinking on October 3, 2004, Hill arrested George Harris in Manukau after he attempted to grab a phone from his pocket to call a taxi.

Murphy and Reuben Harris stopped in their patrol car and agreed to take Hill and Mr Harris to the station.

Reuben Harris said Murphy got out of the car and Hill asked him to drive down an alleyway and then began assaulting the victim.

George Harris escaped and Hill gave chase. Murphy and Reuben Harris later found Hill kneeling over Mr Harris’s body on Great South Rd. The victim was believed to be a second cousin of Reuben Harris and a distant relative of Murphy.

Murphy said a sergeant who arrived at the scene told him and Harris what to say in their statements to investigators, which involved leaving out the alleged assault.

In March this year, a former officer told police that Murphy had told him before the 2005 inquest that his account to investigators was false.

Police reinterviewed Murphy, who had become a recruit with the Queensland police, and Reuben Harris, who had resigned from the force in December 2006, and the pair admitted making false statements.

About 15 family members were in court to support Murphy and Reuben Harris, who has six children. About three members of George Harris’s immediate family were also in court supporting the accused.

The men have agreed to testify against their former colleagues.

They have met the victim’s family, who have accepted their apology.

Murphy’s lawyer, Todd Simmonds, said the pair were the whistleblowers, not the main offenders.

In his sentencing, Judge Charles Blackie said he accepted that the officers were the “junior partners in this conspiracy” but were not whistleblowers as Murphy had spoken to a former police officer.

“There are two victims here. The victim’s family, and the New Zealand community as a whole who have put such trust in our police officers to uphold the law and do the duty that they swore they would do upon graduating out of police college.”

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Police recruit on rape charge

7 August 2008

A police recruit is charged with raping a woman he met on the internet, two weeks into his training.

The recruit, Mark James Tulloch, 30, is suspended from police college on full pay, and from the army, where he was a part-time territorial force soldier.

He is protesting his innocence and says he wants to return to his training once he has cleared his name.

Tulloch was arrested in April four days after the alleged crime. He faces one charge of raping a woman he met over the internet.

Police did not oppose suppression of his name and identifying particulars when he appeared in Porirua District Court in April.

But when the case reached the High Court on August 18, Justice John Wild said he wanted to know whether there was a proper basis for the suppression.

In a decision last week, Justice Simon France refused suppression but gave Tulloch till 5pm yesterday to appeal. No appeal was filed.

A police headquarters spokesman said Tulloch was stood down in accordance with standard procedures when officers are under investigation, including receiving his recruit salary, which is $33,000 during training.

Any decision on his future in the police would be made once the court process was completed. The army did not comment last night.

The High Court was told Tulloch had given a long police interview and cooperated with the investigation in all respects.

He had asked the court to keep his identity secret, saying he wanted to complete his police training if he was acquitted, and publication of his name would irreparably damage his future career.

It was said the possibility of taunting and increased tension, as well as the stigma of the rape allegation, would make it impossible for him to do his job.

Tulloch’s lawyer, Mike Antunovic, said that with the trial not due to start till March 23, his client would face seven months without his side of the story being known.

In his decision, Justice France said he accepted the kind of allegation Tulloch faced carried high stigma and there was a risk that “mud sticks”.

But he was not convinced Tulloch’s name and image would be recalled to the degree that it would affect his career if he were to become a police officer.

“I do not accept publicity would make it impossible for [him] to be a police officer even though acquitted.”

In 2005, a 33-year-old police recruit was charged with the sexual assault of a Christchurch prostitute.

He was stood down on full pay while police investigated and in 2007 was cleared by a jury.

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Answers sought on deadly crash

22 August 2008

Serious questions still need to be answered by police about their role in a fatal crash near Tirau last year, a Putaruru man says.

Comments by Longview Trust chairman Alex Baldwin follow the sentencing of Rotorua man James Hitchcock in the Hamilton District Court yesterday on five charges of careless driving causing injury and one of careless driving causing death after a crash outside the trust’s farm property on SH1 on October 10 last year.

The crash killed 65-year-old Robert Frazer and seriously injured three others.

A police speed camera van was parked in a layby alongside but the police maintain full blame lies with the driver.

Hitchcock had been travelling south on SH1, near Tirau, when his vehicle hit a car driven by Kylee Roycroft, who had stopped in the centre of the road to turn right into the farm owned by Longview Trust.

The police speed camera van was parked in a layby which Miss Roycroft always used to pull into before turning into the farm.

The impact pushed Miss Roycroft’s car into the opposite lane, where it was hit again by an on-coming vehicle.

Miss Roycroft’s stepfather, 65-year-old Robert Frazer, a front seat passenger, died at the scene. Miss Roycroft and her three children were all seriously injured.

Mr Baldwin told the Waikato Times this morning he was “appalled” that police have not taken responsibility.

The turning bay, which Longview Trust had paid Transit about $7000 to build, had been designed to protect residents and visitors making the turn on the 100km/h stretch of road.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Brendon Bland said no blame should be placed on the officer operating the speed camera.

“Full responsibility should be placed with the defendant,” Mr Bland said.

But Mr Baldwin said police had it wrong

“That accident would not have happened had the police van not been there,” Mr Baldwin said.

“It’s a whitewash as far as we’re concerned.” He plans to meet the Police Complaints Authority about the crash.

Miss Roycroft and her family have stopped working at the farm and moved to Hamilton..

Hitchcock’s lawyer, Roger Laybourn, told the court that the 53-year-old had always accepted responsibility for causing the three-car crash and “did everything he could physically” to attend to the injuries of the victims.

A victim impact statement from David Salmon, the driver of the northbound vehicle which hit Miss Roycroft’s car, said he also believed the police van played a significant role in the crash.

Outside court, an emotional Hitchcock spoke of receiving Miss Roycroft’s forgiveness and his relief.

“That’s all I ever wanted,” he said. “Hearing about the injuries the children suffered was really hard and I’ve got to live with that for the rest of my life.”

“For me today, the biggest thing was I got the family’s forgiveness.”

Following yesterday’s sentencing, Hitchcock and Miss Roycroft spoke to each other outside court and embraced.

Judge Harland ordered Hitchcock pay $6000 reparation, $1751 funeral-related expenses, a $1000 fine and $130 court costs.

He was also disqualified from driving for six months.

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Informant wins appeal
August 21, 2008

A recidivist burglar has had his jail sentence quashed and case sent back to the district court because of his role as a police informant.

Conrad Gray, 24, smashed his way into the house of a Rotorua man last November and threatened him with an axe, said a Court of Appeal judgment released yesterday.

Gray was sentenced in Rotorua District Court to three years and three months on charges of assault with a weapon and burglary.

The Court of Appeal judgment said information about Gray’s assistance to police in a separate investigation was not brought to the sentencing judge’s attention.

His lawyer had argued that Gray’s sentence was excessive when his role as an informant was taken into account.

The Crown disagreed, saying his list of convictions and the seriousness of his recent offending - committed while on parole - made the original sentence adequate.

But the Court of Appeal quashed it and said rather than reconsider the sentence, it should be returned to the District Court.

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Police deny stalling report

13 Aug 2008

A delay in the release of a report expected to criticise several Dunedin police officers is the result of confusion around the Independent Police Complaints Authority’s processes rather than a deliberate attempt to stall the release, Dunedin police say.

An authority spokesman said the authority was also viewing the delay as the result of confusion over who should have shown the final report to officers named in it.

The report contains the findings of the authority’s investigation into four complaints about the way Dunedin police handled search warrants requested by a private investigator contracted by ACC to investigate the complainants who were suspected of defrauding ACC.

The private investigator was formerly a Dunedin police officer and is the father-in-law of one of the officers named in the report.

Complainants expect the report to be critical of the officers’ conduct.

The completed report was to be released to complainants last Thursday, but was stalled when officers named in it said they had not been given an opportunity to comment, as required by law.

The authority had given the report to the office of police commissioner Howard Broad and understood police would make sure those named in it had read it.

The police had expected the authority would do that, the authority’s spokesman Bernard Steeds said.

“We thought this process was nailed down, but it appears it is not.”

A response to an Official Information Act request, received by one of the complainants, Bruce Van Essen, on Monday and given to the Otago Daily Times, showed Southern police district commander Superintendent George Fraser, the district operations manager Inspector Lane Todd and community relations officer Vivien Pullar were given the report on July 23.

It was not passed on to the nine other officers required to be issued with a copy until after August 7.

Supt Fraser said last night, “Due to legislative boundaries, police did not believe they had any authority to release the report wider without the specific direction of the authority.”

Mr Van Essen said he found it hard to believe that the officers involved had not read the final report and that the delay was due to crossed wires.

“They should know better than that.”

Mr Steeds said he could not give a date for the expected release of the report.

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Red faces as police own up to phone gaffe

August 18, 2008

Police have acknowledged an embarrassing slip-up in which a detective left a sarcastic remark on the answerphone of former broadcaster Tony Veitch.

The officer, who tried to phone Veitch at his Herne Bay home on Thursday evening, made the comment, “I bet he hasn’t got a smile on his face like that any more”, after hearing a cheerful recorded message.

The crack has infuriated Veitch’s wife, Zoe Halford, who claims the remark left her wanting “to vomit”, and worried about possible police bias against her husband.

“It made me feel as if there was unprofess-ionalism and bias.”

Veitch could find out as early as today whether he will face charges after last month admitting “lashing out” against former partner Kristin Dunne-Powell.

Veitch, 34, reportedly paid Ms Dunne-Powell more than $150,000 following the 2006 incident, which left her with four broken vertebrae.

Ms Halford - Veitch’s wife of six months - went public at the weekend, saying she was worried the police would not give her husband “a fair go”.

“It’s almost like we’ve got two things to worry about: the media trial and the police. They actually impact on each other hugely, which is scary, and it’s not fair on Tony,” she said.

Police spokeswoman Noreen Hegarty said yesterday that the detective’s comments were “an unfortunate and regrettable slip-up” and the officer would no longer be dealing personally with Veitch.

On Friday, police removed a number of items, including computer equipment and Veitch’s cellphone.

Ms Halford said police had searched “every room, every drawer”.

“I just cannot believe it has got to this. It is mind blowing”.

But Ms Hegarty said each person at the search had a specific function.

The six-strong squad - not seven as reported - comprised the officer in charge of the case, another officer to deal with the occupants, an official searcher, and two electronic crime lab staff.

She did not know the role of the sixth member of the squad.

Ms Halford also expressed concerns at what she believed was an ever-widening investigation into her husband.

“We just don’t know where they are going with this. It leads us to believe they are investigating a lot more than just one night.”

Veitch resigned from Television New Zealand and Radio Sport on the same day police announced that Ms Dunne-Powell had laid a formal complaint of assault against him.

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Pepper spray man found guilty of sex assault

August 17, 2008

The man at the centre of a police pepper-spraying incident has been found guilty of indecent assault.

Scott MacDonald made headlines after a TV3 cameraman filmed him being sprayed as he lay handcuffed on the ground outside the Fight for Life celebrity boxing event in May 2006, sparking an independent Police Complaints Authority investigation.

The 35-year-old was charged with resisting arrest and assaulting an officer immediately after the incident and an additional charge of indecent assault followed seven weeks later.

The later charge was laid after Constable Joshua Jones, one of the officers at the centre of the internal inquiry, visited a 17-year-old who had been working at the event.

The woman, who is now 19 and cannot be named for legal reasons, had spoken to police at the event about offensive comments that were made by MacDonald while she was serving drinks.

An allegation he groped her backside surfaced only when Jones visited her home to get her to sign a statement seven weeks later.

In the Auckland District Court last week, MacDonald denied the indecent assault allegation, with his lawyer Chris Comeskey questioning why it took police so long to lay the additional charge.

He suggested the later charge was a convenient way of taking pressure off Jones, who was in trouble for his overzealous arrest of MacDonald.

He also raised credibility issues about the complainant, who had admitted she had first told police she was 18 to avoid difficulties she might have encountered because she had been serving alcohol as a 17-year-old.

The complainant told the court that MacDonald was heavily intoxicated on that night and had been making “rude” remarks at her, such as “you’re hot” and “hey baby, come sit on my lap”.

She said that MacDonald then “grabbed my ass, groped it and then I pushed him away”. She spoke to two police officers at the event and asked if they could keep an eye on MacDonald because he was “drunk”.

Police then confronted MacDonald and dragged him outside where he was handcuffed and pepper-sprayed before being taken away and charged.

The complainant told the court that as police left the venue, one officer said “we’ve got him for you”.

Under cross-examination, the woman denied she knew Jones was under investigation for pepper-spraying the accused.

She said when he visited her home to go over her statement she casually mentioned that MacDonald had grabbed her bottom and it was then Jones said that should be included in her statement.

“We have a string of events here that could best be described as dodgy,” Comeskey told the jury.

“Police went there [the home of the complainant] with indecent assault on the agenda.

“This happened seven weeks later. It is so bizarre it is absurd. It’s an easy allegation to make, a difficult charge to refute.”

But Crown prosecutor Scott McColgan said it was ridiculous to suggest that the woman had made a false complaint to help out the police.

The jury agreed and convicted MacDonald.

Comeskey has now filed an appeal with the Court of Appeal in a bid to have the conviction quashed.

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Officer may have been drinking before crash

August 15, 2008

Police are investigating a report a police constable may have been drinking before he crashed an unmarked police car in New Plymouth.

The crash happened when the officer lost control of the car on Veale Rd at about 2.30am on August 3.

Central Districts’ Inspector Greg Hudson said he was waiting for results of a blood test taken from the constable after the crash.

“The reports are he was (drinking alcohol), but we can’t confirm anything until we get a blood result back, because that is the most crucial evidence,” Mr Hudson told the Taranaki Daily News.

If the constable, who was taken to hospital after the crash, was found to be over the drink-driving limit he would face court action and it would be up to the police commissioner to make a call on his future, Mr Hudson said.

The incident has also left questions over whether or not the constable, who was due to start work later that day, was allowed to be in possession of the police car at the time of the crash.

The officer has been suspended while the incident is investigated.

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‘Policeman’ not in NZ

August 14, 2008

Police say they have no record of a British league player, who racked up a $1500 parking bill at Manchester Airport, entering their ranks.

The Manchester Evening News reported Pat Weisner moved to New Zealand in May to start a new life as a police officer after a bitter split with Cumbrian club Barrow Raiders.

The club car he left at the airport sat for 54 days in a £26.50-a-day car park.

The carpark boss waived the bill.

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House visit intimidation says police complainant

12 August 2008

A police sex abuse complainant says she will make a formal intimidation complaint after a man whose brother wrongfully accessed her police file inspected her home with a real estate agent.

Tauranga woman Donna Johnson, who has accused former policeman Brad Shipton of sexual violation, said she was horrified to learn that Shipton’s co-accused in another case, Warren Hales, had made an appointment to view her property yesterday.

In January, Mr Hales’ brother, Steven Hales, resigned from the police after it was revealed he had accessed Ms Johnson’s file.

“I feel sick to my stomach … I believe the intention was to intimidate me and he has succeeded,” she told The Dominion Post.

Police investigated Ms Johnson’s claims of sexual violation by Shipton, but no charges were laid.

Shipton was convicted of taking part in a 1989 pack rape of another woman in Mt Maunganui, with another former policeman, Bob Schollum, and Tauranga millionaire Peter McNamara.

Mr Hales admitted abducting the woman before the attack.

Ms Johnson said the agent notified her by e-mail on Saturday that Warren Hales had made an appointment to see the property.

It was her understanding that she could not legally deny someone entry to the house because it was to be auctioned publicly, but she told the agent she was taking legal advice and contacted the police. Western Bay of Plenty area commander Inspector Mike Clement confirmed Ms Johnson had contacted him about the appointment because she had “some concerns”.

During the property inspection, Mr Clement stayed with Ms Johnson at another location. If she made an official complaint, Mr Hales was likely to be questioned, he said.

“It isn’t against the law for someone to view a house, but there’s a reasonable expectation that the inspection is by someone who is interested in buying.”

Mr Hales told TV3 outside the house yesterday that he did not know it was Ms Johnson’s house, and said he was genuinely interested in the property.

Ms Johnson said she had no doubt that Mr Hales knew it was her home.

“My name is on the certificate of title, which is given to all prospective buyers.”

The property is being sold because her relationship has broken up. Her former partner’s lawyer also represented Mr Hales in the other case.

Real estate agent Sharon Chote, from Ray White Realty in Tauranga, said Ms Johnson had approved yesterday’s viewing by Mr Hales.

She had been personally unaware of any connection between Mr Hales and Ms Johnson.

Mr Hales could not be reached for comment.

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Off-duty officer crashes cop car

09 August 2008

A Taranaki policeman is under investigation after he crashed an unmarked car while off-duty.

Constable Hamish Hardy crashed the car on Veale Rd, New Plymouth at 2.30am on Sunday.

Constable Hardy has been stood down, on full pay, while an inspector from Central Districts investigates.

Yesterday New Plymouth police area commander Inspector Fiona Prestidge confirmed the off-duty officer had crashed an unmarked car.

“The vehicle was severely damaged,” Mrs Prestidge said.

She refused to name the officer involved.

Constable Hardy was injured in the accident and was taken to hospital but did not need to be admitted.

“He was injured and went for medical treatment. Hence a blood sample was taken at hospital.

“Injured people don’t get requested to do a breath test,” Mrs Prestidge said.

Constable Hardy has been a member of the police Road Safety Branch.

The investigation would cover criminal and traffic matters and was also an employment investigation, she said.

Mrs Prestidge did not know how Constable Hardy got hold of the car.

“Officers are not allowed to take police vehicles home without specific approval. The circumstances of this car being taken is part of the investigation,” she said.

A Taranaki Daily News reporter requested information about the crash from the New Plymouth police station on Sunday, but was told it was nothing to worry about.

“I was not aware that a reporter had requested information about this crash on Sunday and it was not given.

“This request of yours is the first media inquiry I am aware of,” she said.

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Robbers winning in crime hotspots.

August 08, 2008

Police solved only five of the 53 aggravated robberies of South Auckland shops in the six months before liquor store owner Navtej Singh was fatally shot in a hold-up.

The record was revealed in Parliament, where National MP and former policeman Chester Borrows blamed it on a lack of police staff “to do the basics, like checking registration numbers and following up on descriptions of offenders”.

Mr Borrows told the Herald an operation was set up to investigate robberies of commercial premises in the Counties-Manukau police district after Mr Singh was fatally injured in his Manurewa liquor store on June 7.

He said police sources told him the operation discovered the five-from-53 record and that detectives on it had found basic clues were not followed up because of understaffing.

Mr Singh’s cousin Gurwinder Singh, who was in the shop at the time of the shooting, last night said the figures showed the Government needed to give police more staff and powers to sort out crime in the area.

“It should be more strict so criminals and robbers can be caught.”

The Government has introduced a bill to prevent small shops selling alcohol, but Gurwinder Singh said it should focus on laws that allowed shopkeepers to protect themselves.

Detective Inspector John Tims, Counties-Manukau crime services manager, said the aggravated robbery operation was set up not in response to Mr Singh’s murder.

He said it started before that, although he could not say when.

Mr Tims said the operation had arrested 20 offenders and solved eight aggravated robberies in which knives and other weapons were used.

Another 10 offenders had been identified, and once they were arrested, another five robberies would be cleared.

Mr Tims did not dispute Mr Borrows’ figures.

He would not comment on Mr Borrows’ assertion that basic clues were not followed up, saying priorities were part of policing.

There was different evidence in each case “and the evidence takes you where it takes you”.

Mr Borrows told Parliament other details about policing in South Auckland, including an internal email that said “senior investigators in this [Counties-Manukau] district are nearly falling over”.

He asked Police Minister Annette King if she agreed the measure of the success of law and order policy was how policing in South Auckland came up to public expectation.

Ms King said the success of policing would be measured around NZ, because although there were problems in South Auckland, “a sole officer working in the backblocks of Otago is under immense pressure as well”.

She told Parliament police in South Auckland had recently faced many serious issues, and Commissioner Howard Broad had assured her that detectives could be taken from any part of New Zealand to back them up.

The minister would not comment further last night on the unsolved aggravated robberies.

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Dairy-owner ‘had to shoot’ to save lives

August 08, 2008

A man who shot at armed robbers holding up his dairy says he will not hesitate to pull his air pistol again if he and his wife are threatened.

Police cannot rule out charging the Christchurch shop owner, who claims he hit one of the masked men in the face, but say it is not being considered as they focus on catching the robbers.

“We can’t say 100 per cent it’s never going to happen,” Detective Anita Paterson told the Herald.

She added: “We would be more than happy if the [robbers] would like to come forward and make a complaint”.

Nike, a Chinese immigrant, said he felt he had to use the air pistol to save his life, and that of his wife, Niec, after the “animals” burst into his dairy on Monday night - one waving a long knife in a chopping motion at him.

There was no time to try to reason with the men, whose faces were covered with blue bandannas.

“I am very sure I have done … the right thing,” he said.

“Let the public judge if it is right or if it is wrong. We are good people. If my wife is here, I would do everything to protect my wife.”

Nike said he was acting on instinct, while dodging the swinging knife, when his wife reached under the counter for the pistol and handed it to him.

He fired five or six times, before the pistol’s magazine fell out, and believes most of the shots hit the men.

“They try to kill you from the very start. The shooting worked. It successfully stopped the next step to hurting us.”

The second man began panicking, and Nike’s wife started throwing whatever she could reach at them, including a hand-held phone.

One of the men grabbed the till off the counter before the pair fled.

The local community have rallied behind Nike and his wife since the robbery. Customers have praised Nike for his actions and brought in gifts.

One customer even installed security cameras in the shop free of charge.

Nike got the air pistol in after the fatal shooting of Manurewa liquor store owner Navtej Singh in June.

While police’s response time in that case was questioned, Nike was full of praise for how quickly police got to his dairy after the robbery.

Ms Paterson said there was a risk that in pulling the air pistol the situation could have been worse, and police did not encourage such actions.

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No charges yet against dairy owner

7 August 2008

A Christchurch dairy owner is waiting to find out whether he will be charged after shooting at robbers with an air pistol.

The machete-wielding offenders threatened the man in his Wainoni Rd store on Saturday. The shopkeeper shot at them with the air pistol he had bought following the fatal shooting of South Auckland liquor store owner Navtej Singh.

Police are discouraging such actions. Detective Constable Matt Grant says the situation could have become much worse. He says owners need to simply give people what they want and get out themselves of danger as soon as possible.

Thirty-year-old Mr Singh was complying with the robber’s demands when he was shot at close range in March.

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Scorn poured on cop’s copper call

Thursday, 07 August 2008

Taranaki farmers are being told to sell their copper spouting and other valuable items around the farm before thieves get their hands on it.

But the advice from a police officer has shocked a national crime lobby group, which says the country’s cops are backing down in the face of rampant rural crime.

In an address to Taranaki Women in Farming, rural liaison officer Senior Constable Jono Erwood told the women to make it harder for the thieves.

“If you’ve got a haybarn with copper, take it down and replace it with plastic, so you get the money,” he said.

The advice follows a spate of copper thefts over recent months and a surge in price for scrap metal.

“Even the old car battery that was once worth nothing is now fetching $20,” Mr Erwood said.

One woman said she was advised to take down her aluminium loading ramp.

“They’re like wekas these undesirables. They take the bling bling for their cars,” Mr Erwood said.

But Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman Garth McVicar was appalled.

He said the advice was sending the wrong message to criminals.

“Rather than retreating we should be standing up as a united front,” he said.

“In the past, if they’d break in they’d want your TV. Now they want more and more. We’ve got to say enough is enough, to put the brakes on.”

National Party police spokesman Chester Borrows said it was a sign of the times and people would have to look after themselves.

“You can’t police everywhere. People have to accept if they are living in a rural area they largely police themselves,” he said.

“It is not an acceptable place to be but if you are living in the back of Whangamomona, the chances of having a police officer at your door in five minutes are pretty slim.”

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Police deliver TradeMe names to prisoners

August 03, 2008

The private details of up to 10,000 Trade Me users - described as a “shopping list for criminals” - have been released by police to prison inmates.

Police investigating the so-called terror raids last year obtained the i