KEY POINTS:
A long-serving police officer accused of sexually violating a 12-year-old girl is still on full pay 10 months after first being charged.
The officer, whose name is suppressed, has been suspended since December last year and will appear in court on October 1 for a pre-trial conference. Police
have also seized his work computer.
The officer's lawyer, Philip Hall, told the Herald on Sunday his client vigorously denied the allegations.
Sources close to the case say the complaint arose after the girl confided in an adult friend.
A complaint was then laid with police and the matter was investigated. As a result, charges were laid.
The girl, the source said, had since undergone counselling and was now starting to "come out of her shell" again.
"She is such a lovely, adorable kid ... real outgoing and smart. She used to be a laugh-a-minute, but then suddenly she became very withdrawn and quiet."
There was anger, one source said, over the fact the officer, who is alleged to have violated the girl over the period of a year, had received name suppression. There was a hope he eventually would be named.
At a depositions hearing in April, the court found the officer had a case to answer on two counts of sexually violating the girl. The officer is currently on bail and the case is set to go to trial on November 26.
It is understood the officer was known to the girl's family. He is banned by court order from the town where his alleged victim lives.
Police national headquarters confirmed the officer was suspended on December 21 last year on full pay, a month after the complaint was first lodged with police.
Spokesman Jon Nielson said regardless of the seriousness of the charges, it was standard procedure under the Police Act for an officer to remain on the payroll during the period of their standdown.
One source spoken to by the Herald on Sunday said those involved with the case were "gobsmacked and angry" to hear the senior constable was still being paid, especially as the charges were among the most serious ever faced by a serving officer.
If it had been anyone but a public servant accused of such serious offending, they would have either been sacked or suspended without pay, the source said.
Currently, around a dozen police from Auckland, Waitemata, Counties Manukau, Bay of Plenty, Tasman and Canterbury police districts are facing criminal charges.
The charges faced by the various accused include male assaults female, injuring with intent, common assault, driving with excess breath alcohol, theft, careless driving, making a false statement, assault with a weapon, wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and male rapes female. Some of the charges carry maximum prison terms of 14 years or more.
These cases are likely to do little to restore confidence in a police force still reeling from the findings of the Bazley Report and the police sex trials.
The victim in this latest case is now 13, and has returned to school after initially taking some time off when the complaint was first laid. She had been writing her thoughts in a diary, starting to take an interest in sport and learning to knit. "She really lost a lot of self-confidence, but I can see she's starting to take pride in herself again," said the source.
