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Suspended Assistant Commissioner Clint Rickards is expected to face a total of six internal disciplinary charges for serious misconduct, which could effectively bring to an end his 27-year career in the police.
Despite being acquitted on 10 charges, including kidnapping, rape and indecent assault, over the course of two trials, police have refused to reinstate Rickards as Auckland's top cop.
Now the Herald on Sunday can reveal Rickards is likely to face six internal disciplinary charges, which if upheld will dash any hope he had of returning to the police.
Two charges relate to Rickards' admission in court he had sex with Louise Nicholas while two relate to comments he made outside the High Court at Auckland where he described the police investigation as "a shambles" - and gave his support to convicted rapists Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum.
The remaining two charges relate to Rickards' admission he had what he said was consensual sex with another woman.
Rickards' lawyer Paul Wicks declined to comment, but it is understood he will be mounting a defence on Rickards' behalf. Rickards has been suspended for the past three years on full pay, believed to be in the region of $150,000 a year.
Police spokeswoman Jane Archibald confirmed the internal disciplinary inquiry had almost been completed and at the end of that inquiry charges may - or may not - be laid.
If charges are laid they will be determined by a formal internal disciplinary tribunal, which consists usually of only one person - in most cases a retired judge or lawyer. The process is similar to a district court hearing, in which the accused is asked to make a plea and then make submissions.
If Rickards chooses to defend the charges, the matter will proceed to a hearing involving a prosecutor and witnesses will be called and cross-examined.
If he is found guilty, the results will be submitted to Police Commissioner Howard Broad who will decide a penalty, which could include a demotion, a fine or dismissal. A person may plead guilty and elect for the matter to be considered without a tribunal hearing.
Police have already asked several media organisations to provide them with the footage and interviews from Rickards' comments outside court after the last trial, in which he was acquitted.
Rickards was suspended on full pay in 2004 when allegations surfaced of his involvement with Shipton and Schollum in unlawful sex with Nicholas.
All three were acquitted, but during his evidence, Rickards admitted that he and Shipton had consensual group sex with her when the two men were police officers based in Rotorua in the 1980s. Shipton and Schollum are serving jail terms for the rape of a Mt Maunganui woman in 1989.
Last March, Rickards, Shipton and Schollum were found not guilty of kidnapping and indecently assaulting a 16-year-old girl in Rotorua between 1983 and 1984. Immediately after that acquittal, Rickards said he wanted his old job back.
"I'm looking forward to starting back at work at the Auckland Central Police Station where I am the district commander and have been for three years," he said outside the High Court at Auckland.
At the time, Rickards also said the police investigation was one that he would have been ashamed to lead. "It was a shambles," he said.
There have been other cases of police officers who have faced criminal charges and have later been reinstated into the force.
In 2004, Superintendent Kelvin Powell was accused of raping a female constable at a birthday party 21 years earlier. He was acquitted and returned to his role as Waikato's district commander.
Former Wanganui police boss Alec Waugh also faced fraud charges over a small amount of money and spent six years trying to clear his name. After those convictions were quashed, he was given a desk job in Wellington on return and retired last year.
