Former cop to face trial on historic sex charges

File photo / Hawke's Bay Today

Another former Rotorua police officer is to go on trial after being charged with sexual assault.

Iosefa "Joe" Fiaola, 44, has been charged with sexually violating a woman at her James St flat between June and December 1989, The Dominion Post reported.

A complaint was first made in late 2006 after high-profile sexual assault cases involving former Rotorua policemen Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum and former assistant police commissioner Clint Rickards.

All three men where acquitted of raping Louise Nicholas, however Shipton and Schollum returned to jail to continue serving their sentences for the 1989 pack rape of another woman.

Fiaola is the ninth Rotorua policeman to be charged over alleged historic sexual offences.

He worked as a police officer in Rotorua in the late 1980s, and now lives in Australia.

The complainant, who was 17 at the time of the alleged assault, said Fiaola stripped off his clothes before jumping into her bed and having unprotected sex.

"I said 'No, I don't want this'. He said 'Yes, you want this'," her written deposition said."

She told police she later contracted herpes.

The woman yesterday told the newspaper she was relieved the case was finally coming to an end.

"It hasn't been pleasant but I hope by putting it out there it may encourage others to come forward," she said.

Bay of Plenty police district commander Superintendent Gary Smith said the allegations were taken seriously and investigated thoroughly.

- NZPA