KEY POINTS:
Suspended assistant police commissioner Clint Rickards has told the High Court in Auckland that he does not know the woman accusing him and two former police officers of sexual violation.
Rickards took the witness stand today to refute allegations he was involved in the kidnapping and sexual assault of a woman who was 16 at the time of the alleged attack in Rotorua in the 1980s.
His lawyer John Haigh asked him if the allegations against him were true.
Rickards replied: "They are not."
Mr Haigh asked if he had ever known the woman.
Rickards said: "No, I have not."
Rickards described how from 1982 to 1984 he was a uniformed police officer, contradicting the woman's evidence that she had only ever seen him in plain clothes.
He said of his career at that time: "The New Zealand Police was my life. That was my career. So I wanted to do the best I could."
He also gave evidence of how he had a major knee operation in October 1982 that left him either in a cast or incapacitated through into the early months of 1984.
The woman has said she did not see him with a cast or limping.
Mr Haigh said eminent New Zealand knee surgeon Barry Tietjens would be called to give evidence about Rickards' recovery as would a friend of Rickards.
Rickards, who is the first of three defence witnesses to be called by Mr Haigh, began by telling the jury he is the assistant commissioner of police responsible for over 2500 police staff. He then acknowledged he was suspended.
Rickards, Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton deny all the charges against them.
The trial continues.
