Dewar out on parole

John Dewar has been released on parole. Photo / Sarah Ivey

A former top police officer jailed for his handling of the Louise Nicholas police sex case has been released on parole after serving about 19 months of his 4-year sentence.

Nicholas was shocked to learn yesterday of the freeing of John Dewar, saying she would have liked to have opposed his release if the Parole Board had given her the chance.

"I thought that was my right," she said. Dewar, 57, was convicted on four charges of wilfully attempting to obstruct, pervert or defeat the course of justice in the investigation of historic sexual assault allegations made by Nicholas in 2007.

Though he has never admitted his actions, the parole board said his behaviour behind bars had been good and he was unlikely to reoffend.

Between 1993 and 1995, Dewar was chief inspector of the Rotorua CIB and investigated complaints of sexual assaults by police officers, including Clint Rickards, Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton.

Operation Austin was launched in early 2004 when Nicholas made her sexual misconduct allegations public. Other women came forward claiming to be victims of sexual assaults by the same men in the 1980s, resulting in seven trials. The three men were found not guilty of charges relating to Nicholas. But Shipton and Schollum were already in jail after being convicted of pack-raping another woman.

In 2007, a jury in the High Court at Hamilton found Dewar, a father of four, had suppressed allegations Nicholas made against the men when she spoke to police in 1993 and had given inadmissible evidence in the trial of another policeman, who has permanent name suppression.