KEY POINTS:
The family of jailed former cop Brad Shipton has accused Louise Nicholas of orchestrating a "revenge-at-all-costs" vendetta to punish the men, who testified against her in her first rape complaint against police.
Shipton, suspended Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards and former Rotorua police officer Bob Schollum were defence witnesses in the 1994 trial of a policeman charged with raping Nicholas as a teenager in Murupara. After three trials - the first two were aborted - he was acquitted.
The trio attacked Nicholas' credibility by testifying she had had group sex with them in 1985 and 1986, allegations which later formed the basis of her high-profile rape complaint.
The three were last week found not guilty of kidnapping and sexually violating another Rotorua teenager in the 1980s, almost a year after they were also acquitted of the Nicholas charges.
Rickards, who has been stood down for three years, says his life and career is in tatters following the cases. "Yes, my career has been destroyed. Yes, my life has been destroyed... It's the impact on my family that's been the major issue for me."
Louise Nicholas, meanwhile, remains defiant. "Why would I lie about this, why would I make this stuff up?" She says she is convinced more women will surface to support her claims and says her focus is on changing police culture and ensuring a better deal for rape victims.
The alleged victims of the men will not be able to take civil cases against them. Compensation law specialist John Miller says there is a six-year limit on punitive damage lawsuits, ruling the 1980s cases out.
Meanwhile, the Shipton family remains convinced Nicholas wanted payback and was prepared to go to any lengths to get it. Brad Shipton's brother Greg, a former police officer of 16 years, says she was humiliated after her original rape complaint was thrown out. When allegations resurfaced in 2004, she "made a meal out of it" to hurt the men whose testimony had damaged her 1994 case.
Nicholas rejected the allegation, saying that while she was angry that Rickards, Schollum and Shipton had appeared for the defence, it had not been the motivation for her later rape complaint. Nicholas did not make a formal rape complaint against the trio in the early 1990s but says she did speak to a police officer who refused to take it further.
After last week's verdict, suppression orders were lifted in the case, revealing that Shipton and Schollum were already serving jail sentences for the rape of a woman in Mt Maunganui in the 1980s.
Tauranga woman Donna Johnson has also claimed that 10 years ago Shipton forced her to perform oral sex on him. She claimed police never acted on her complaint.
Greg Shipton told the Herald on Sunday that the family was aware of that complaint but it was not credible. "There's nothing in this. It's just more of the same."
The family also wanted to dispel perceptions of Shipton as a serial adulterer. In the 1980s there was a different sense of morals and values, and group sex was far more accepted than it was today, he said.
Asked why Shipton's wife Sharon had chosen to stand by him despite the numerous affairs, he said he was unsure but offered one theory.
"It's a lot easier to forgive things that happened 23 years ago. It's a lot easier than coming home and finding your bloke in the sack with someone else.
"He has put everything to her... They are at peace with each other.
"The real victim is his 12-year-old daughter. She is the one growing up without a father... She heard all this stuff about what an animal her father is, but she knows better. Brad is finding it tough in prison, but he'll get through it."
Greg Shipton claimed the biggest mistake his brother made was not taking the Mt Maunganui rape complaint "seriously enough". The allegations, he claimed, were so far-fetched, he never thought they would be proven. "But he got nailed, and it was so wrong. Those men didn't get a fair trial. The jury - I'm convinced they knew of the connection to the Nicholas case. You know, Brad was a good cop. Sure, he was bolshy and cocky, and he's not denying he was unfaithful to his wife. But he's no monster."
