Accuser's 'vendetta'

Accusations that Louise Nicholas has orchestrated a "revenge-at-all-costs" vendetta to punish the men, who testified against her in her first rape complaint against police.

Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards was a defence witness in the 1994 trial of a policeman charged with raping Nicholas as a teenager in Murupara. After three trials - the first two were aborted - he was acquitted.

He attacked Nicholas' credibility by testifying she had had group sex with him and others in 1985 and 1986, allegations which later formed the basis of her high-profile rape complaint.

Greg Shipton, a former police officer of 16 years, says she was humiliated after her original rape complaint was thrown out. When allegations resurfaced in 2004, she "made a meal out of it" to hurt the men whose testimony had damaged her 1994 case.

Nicholas rejected the allegation, saying that while she was angry that Rickards, Schollum and Shipton had appeared for the defence, it had not been the motivation for her later rape complaint. Nicholas did not make a formal rape complaint against the trio in the early 1990s.