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Rogue cop John Dewar has been given a discounted prison sentence after a judge accepted he would suffer "additional hardship" in prison as a former high-ranking officer.
Dewar was sentenced to 4 1/2 years prison by Justice Rodney Hansen in the High Court at Hamilton yesterday.
Justice Hansen said his cover-up of Louise Nicholas' rape allegations against three officers struck at the heart of the administration of justice, and had damaged public confidence in the police and justice system.
But he said the "additional hardship in prison" was one reason for him reducing Dewar's sentence from six years.
Dewar's lawyer Paul Mabey, QC, had earlier asked that the judge take Dewar's former occupation into account, as it would make prison life "more onerous".
Retired Detective Chief Inspector Rex Miller, who conducted some of the early inquiries into Dewar's behaviour and was in court to see him sentenced, said he was surprised it was taken into account.
"If you do the crime you should do the time. It doesn't matter if you are from the backblocks, from high society, or if you did whatever as a job."
A spokeswoman for Women's Refuge said she hoped Dewar's conviction and sentencing would help restore some faith that many women had lost in the justice system.
But she didn't think Dewar should have been given a discounted sentence.
"It would be good to see the law applied evenly, regardless of whether somebody has been a police officer, a judge, a drain-layer or whatever."
Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman Garth McVicar said it was inappropriate for the judge to reduce the sentence.
"I don't have any sympathy for Dewar at all. He had the opportunity to take the appropriate action and he chose not to."
He described Dewar's sentence as pathetic, and said he should have got a longer sentence because of the position of trust he had held.
"I thought maybe eight years would have been an appropriate sentence ... I'm a huge fan of the police, but when they go wrong like this guy, we've got to smack them hard."
Head Hunters gang leader Wayne Doyle, who served a life sentence in Paremoremo for murder, said a former police officer like Dewar would be kept separate from "mainstream" inmates and instead put "in the same place where they put [convicted sex offender] Bert Potter and guys like that".
Dewar was given a $250,000-plus payout when he left the force in 1999 after 25 years, despite being investigated for over-claiming on travel expenses.
But in 2004, it emerged that he had been involved in covering up Mrs Nicholas' allegations against Clint Rickards, Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton. The three were subsequently cleared of raping her.
Justice Hansen said the aggravating features of Dewar's crime were overwhelming.
The offending had involved a "gross breach of trust".
It had harmed the victim, Louise Nicholas, psychologically and financially, and had also damaged the reputation of several institutions.
Despite being found guilty on four counts of perverting the course of justice by a jury in August, Dewar asked Mr Mabey to tell the court he maintained his innocence.
Mr Mabey said. "He does not accept the verdicts of the jury. He says he is an innocent man, and does not wish to express any contrition."
But despite his protestations of innocence, Dewar would take the judge's sentence "like a man".
Mr Mabey said his client had lost respect in society, together with his career and business. "It's a matter of the bigger you are, the harder you fall."
The judge also read from a pre-sentence report which said Dewar was considered a man whose vanity may have blinded his sense of reality.
Justice Hansen said Dewar was motivated by a desire to cover up the rape allegations against his former colleagues and friends.
Mrs Nicholas watched the sentencing from the court's packed public gallery.
