KEY POINTS:
A former detective who conducted a 1995 inquiry into the conduct of Rotorua CIB head John Dewar - together with investigating possible charges of indecent sexual acts against three policemen - says he became "sick and tired of people trying to scuttle the inquiry".
Retired Detective Chief Inspector Rex Miller said during a High Court sitting at Hamilton yesterday that those comments were directed at Louise Nicholas, after she rang him to change a statement she had given about six weeks previously.
Mr Miller was one of two key prosecution witnesses to give evidence yesterday in the trial of Dewar, who faces a charge of manipulating Mrs Nicholas during a police investigation into his conduct in the course of what are dubbed the "Murupara trials".
Dewar was the officer in charge.
The 1993 and 1994 trials centred on a policeman accused of rape, who was acquitted after three trials. He has permanent name suppression.
However, the main outcome from the trials was damning revelations of allegations made against a number of other police officers, including Bob Schollum, Clint Rickards and Brad Shipton, but involving several others who have name suppression.
Dewar is also accused of twicegiving inadmissible, hearsay evidence at two hearings into the Murupara trials.
Dewar was tasked with carrying out an inquiry into a number of unconfirmed allegations against police made by Mrs Nicholas during the Murupara trials.
It is alleged that between January 1993 and 1995 he deliberately suppressed or failed to act on Mrs Nicholas' complaint against former Rotorua police officers Rickards, Schollum and Shipton.
Mr Miller told the court that in 1995 he reviewed court transcripts and police job sheets, files and documents relating to the Murupara rape complaints.
He found no reference to interviews that should have been conducted with Rickards, Shipton and Schollum, after alleged indecencies by those men came to light.
This despite being sent the Murupara file from Rotorua.
"The file of an inquiry of that nature I would describe as being very thin and lacking substance," Mr Miller said. "After reading transcripts it was obvious that some criminal investigation should take place."
Key to the inquiry would be getting a statement from Louise Nicholas.
"Without interviewing her fully you didn't have an inquiry."
An interview followed in which allegations of non-consensual sexual activity were confirmed from Mrs Nicholas' point of view, he said.
However, Dewar also conducted his own interview with Mrs Nicholas, something Mr Miller said was "totally inappropriate", given Dewar was the person under investigation.
In her statement to Dewar, Mrs Nicholas said sexual activity with Shipton, Schollum and Rickards was consensual. Mr Miller said this "totally destroyed her credibility" and any possibility of a criminal case against the trio of policemen.
But Mr Miller said the statement was "written in Dew-ise rather than Louise".
During cross-examination before Paul Mabey, QC, Mr Miller admitted the criminal case against the three policemen had already been waived, but Mrs Nicholas' about-turn had confirmed investigators' feelings.
Earlier in the day, Superintendent Russell Gibson took the stand.
He was in the internal affairs department of the police in 1993 and 1994, which was a conduit to the Police Complaints Authority.
Mr Gibson said the investigation should have been carried out by an officer outside the district to ensure no conflicts of interest.
