Jury in third day of police rape case deliberations

Jurors were today starting a third day of deliberations in the rape case against Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards and former police colleagues Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton.

The jury considering Louise Nicholas' rape allegations had been deliberating for almost 21 hours in the High Court at Auckland when it adjourned last night about 8.45pm.

Earlier yesterday the jurors asked if they could have access to Justice Tony Randerson's summing-up notes.

While the family and friends of the three accused have kept a vigil outside court room 12, Mrs Nicholas has not been seen. Supporters of the defendants gathered again last night.

Mrs Nicholas alleges that between September 1985 and December 1986 Shipton and Rickards visited her Rotorua flat between six and 12 times uninvited for sex she did not consent to.

She also alleges that in January 1986 Schollum picked her up while she was walking home from her job at the BNZ Bank and took her to a police house where the trio took turns raping her before indecently assaulting her with a police baton.