KEY POINTS:
The 67-year-old father of Louise Nicholas was dramatically rushed to hospital after collapsing in an elevator with a "stress-related illness" following the acquittal of suspended top cop Clint Rickards and two of his former police colleagues.
Jim Crawford was taken to Auckland City Hospital after falling ill on Friday morning - a day after Rickards, Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum were cleared on historic sexual assault charges involving a then 16-year-old complainant.
Nicholas told the Herald on Sunday that panic set in when her father, without warning, slumped to the ground. "We were in the lift, and then he just went down. I thought at first he had had a stroke," she said.
Nicholas, despite holding a practising first aid certificate, admits she "lost it, big time". Instead of doing what she had been trained to, she started screaming for help and "pretty much abusing everyone in sight", something she apologised for later.
Eventually, emergency services arrived and took Crawford to hospital, where he was kept under observation for 24 hours.
Nicholas was convinced his sudden turn was a result of stress from Thursday's not guilty verdicts. It had been another kick in the teeth for him, she believed.
"This whole thing has been tough for Dad," she said.
"It's been hard for him hearing these allegations and then having to live through this. At the end of the day, I'm his little girl."
Crawford was once friends with several of the accused policemen. He helped establish the Murupara search and rescue unit and became friendly with many of the local police, including Bob Schollum.
One of those police officers was later accused of raping Nicholas on the kitchen table of the Murupara police station when she was 13. Nicholas never told her parents - she was fearful of how they would react.
The complaint went through three trials in the early 1990s, and the accused policeman was eventually acquitted of the charges. He has permanent name suppression.
Nicholas said her father, like the rest of her family, were tough and would bounce back from this latest setback. Crawford was expected to be discharged from hospital yesterday.
