Top cop vows to fight on

John Dewar at home with his wife Louise and sons Callum and Connor. Photo / Herald on Sunday

The wife of a former top cop who was jailed for covering up police rape allegations last night said she had wanted to "kill" Louise Nicholas.

John Dewar was paroled last May after serving 19 months of a 4 year sentence for perverting the course of justice.

Dewar attacked Nicholas for causing his family "immeasurable grief", and said he plans to write a book and take his case to the Supreme Court in an attempt to clear his name.

His wife, Louise Dewar, told the Herald on Sunday that she no longer held the same level of animosity towards Nicholas.

She said: "At one stage I thought I might kill her but now I just think she is not someone I would have a normal conversation with, so what would be the point of giving your side or saying anything. I don't wish to see her."

Dewar was Chief Inspector of the Rotorua CIB when Nicholas made the historic sex allegations against former policemen Clint Rickards, Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum in 1993.

Dewar said prison had been difficult for a former cop. He was attacked in prison by a murderer armed with a rake three days before he was due to be paroled.

"It's a violent place. If you are a police officer, you are a target.

"You had to stand your ground. You can't do it in a way with bravado and your chest pounding saying 'Come on I'll take you'.

"Prisons are a dangerous place. There are violent, troubled people there and if you compress, in our case, 40 people into a small area, there is going to be a degree of tension.

"If you are a white bloke, you are a target. And if you are over 45 and white male, you are called a kiddie f***** in there."

The father of four said he had lost $700,000 in the fight to clear his name. "I lost everything, we lost all our possessions. I lost a job, I lost my family and liberty for some time but overall I lost my reputation, my good name.

"She [Nicholas] has caused immeasurable grief to my family and financial destruction. She has taken away my reputation."

The 58-year-old said he had spoken to Shipton since he was released from jail, but not Schollum or Rickard.

Dewar said he was writing the book to try to set the record straight.

"Part of it was therapy for me, but it was all the inconsistencies, stuff that didn't come out of the trial, things she has denied in her book."

Nicholas said she did not want to be dragged into a slanging match with Dewar.

She said: "He is obviously a very bitter man but he has brought this on himself. There was a paper trail that proved he perverted the course of justice. He was convicted beyond reasonable doubt.

"I just feel very sorry for his family for putting them through all of this again."