TUESDAY, MAY 13, 2008
In the interests of justice
As appearing in The Lakesider, October 2007 issue
By Heather Skelton
When you meet someone who has battled our legal system for 27 of their 40 years, you’d be forgiven for expecting to find they’d be cynical, or embittered or just plain world-weary. Not so in the case of Louise Nicholas, who launched her and co-author Phil Kitchen’s book My Story this week.
This now house-hold name is just a slight woman who looks like she should have been swept away at the first sign of the winds of injustice. Yet straight-backed and clear-eyed as she tells her story, even the most cynical are left with no option but to carefully consider what she is saying.
The events that began back when she was 13 years old have seen her go through several trials, seen what she says is belated justice in some and not in others. Virtually singlehandledly, she’s fought for women to be better respected when it comes to reporting crimes of sexual abuse and either directly or indirectly, been responsible for changes in legislation to ensure that once in a courtroom, that respect continues.
The book, she says, is telling it how it really was and is.
“It started with an article Phil wrote in the Dominion Post in 2004. That’s really where the journey over the last three years has stemmed from.”
“I got asked to write a book and I wanted Phil to be part of that, he’d been familiar with it from the start. Random House agreed to that. It all started from there really.”
Louise says that writing a book wasn’t hard – she’d never done that before, but what she was writing about was something she had lived with for so long that getting it out and onto paper wasn’t the hard deal it might otherwise have been.
“You never forget these things. Sometimes I had a hard time with the actual chronological date times of some things, but the statements that were made at the time that Phil managed to track down certainly helped a lot with that.”
Her reasons for writing the book are simple and expressive.
“The public of New Zealand have a right to know the whole truth. It was really hard during the trial (of Bob Schollum, Brad Shipton and Clint Rickards), there was so much the public – and the jury – didn’t know, with witnesses and evidence being with-held,” she says.
“The media only knew what they were allowed to know and this meant the public only knew what the media did – there were many half truths and at times, the media got it really wrong,” she said.
Louise believes entirely that from a legal perspective it was a sham.
“I’ve been through five trials (often as witnesses for others) since the early 1990’s, two of which were aborted by John Dewar,” she says of the man so recently convicted of attempting to obstruct or defeat the course of justice over his handling of her complaints of historic sexual abuse.
“Then there was the my own trial and I’d come out of that one every day shaking my head at the injustices in our justice system.”
“There’s so much that is “not allowed” to be heard, simply because of a defense lawyer’s successful arguments to a judge. The majority of such decisions are at a judges discretion and some relates to our laws – which are so draconian. Much of this information and evidence that could convict is simply withheld on some technicality.”
The constant high profile of the alleged sexual abuse has meant that people see things differently today than they did three years ago, she says.
“The public are seeing the injustices that were done and are calling for accountability,” she says.
“In all honesty, when I decided in 2004 to come out into the open with Phil Kitchen and that first article, I didn’t go out for two weeks. I was so afraid of what people would think. But then,” she says, “I had to go and do some shopping and you know, it took me two hours. The amount of people who came up to me and hugged me, shook my hand… and said thank you, was just mind blowing to me.”
The reason for those ‘thank you’” took a while to sink in.
“I couldn’t understand it – but now, after years and countless women coming up to me and saying ‘thank you for doing what I never had the courage to do,’ and the amount of people who knew what was going on but could do nothing about it.. it vindicated what I was doing,” she says.
“I had nothing to hide, I put myself and my family out there and I expected some of the flak I got because that’s the way people think sometimes. But I have to say the positives from all over New Zealand have absolutely outweighed the negatives in every area and I have to give a big thank you to the public for their support. Without them, my husband Ross, our parents and daughters, I could never have got this far.”
Louise says she believes people have got sick of the little guy being bullied; they know it goes on, but no-one stands up to fight it – and when they do, the public get in behind.
Looking back on what’s happened, Louise sees a lot of positive events that have occurred – and still are.
“The legislation changes, the others who have taken courage and come forward – and there are so many – the necessary change of police attitudes.” Louise says she simply cannot fault Operation Austins’ police officers, who she said went over and above the call of duty throughout this.
And Louise doesn’t intend to let the fight stop with the publishing of My Story.
“There has to be a change in our laws and justice system, not just for victims but for defendants too,” she says. She passionately wants to see the third option in a trial become reality so that instead of either guilty or not guilty, we also have as the Scottish do, unproven. That way, if other evidence comes to light, someone who has been wrongfully acquitted can be made to stand trial again.
Most importantly, that defense lawyers cannot accuse any victim of some of the names and events that make women of New Zealand so afraid to stand and ask for justice and that if a defendant has a relative previous conviction of a similar nature, that this must be heard in court.
“And for me, the most important aspect is that defendants should not be allowed to hide behind their lawyers – that they must take the stand and I’ll be fighting all the way to see these things happen,” she says.
As for the book, it’s got it all she says. Things that were never allowed to be said or shown in the courtrooms, the truth she’s been wanting to have heard all these years.
Whatever I say in this, Phil has been able to back up with facts – and that’s what’s important,’ she says.
By Heather Skelton
When you meet someone who has battled our legal system for 27 of their 40 years, you’d be forgiven for expecting to find they’d be cynical, or embittered or just plain world-weary. Not so in the case of Louise Nicholas, who launched her and co-author Phil Kitchen’s book My Story this week.
This now house-hold name is just a slight woman who looks like she should have been swept away at the first sign of the winds of injustice. Yet straight-backed and clear-eyed as she tells her story, even the most cynical are left with no option but to carefully consider what she is saying.
The events that began back when she was 13 years old have seen her go through several trials, seen what she says is belated justice in some and not in others. Virtually singlehandledly, she’s fought for women to be better respected when it comes to reporting crimes of sexual abuse and either directly or indirectly, been responsible for changes in legislation to ensure that once in a courtroom, that respect continues.
The book, she says, is telling it how it really was and is.
“It started with an article Phil wrote in the Dominion Post in 2004. That’s really where the journey over the last three years has stemmed from.”
“I got asked to write a book and I wanted Phil to be part of that, he’d been familiar with it from the start. Random House agreed to that. It all started from there really.”
Louise says that writing a book wasn’t hard – she’d never done that before, but what she was writing about was something she had lived with for so long that getting it out and onto paper wasn’t the hard deal it might otherwise have been.
“You never forget these things. Sometimes I had a hard time with the actual chronological date times of some things, but the statements that were made at the time that Phil managed to track down certainly helped a lot with that.”
Her reasons for writing the book are simple and expressive.
“The public of New Zealand have a right to know the whole truth. It was really hard during the trial (of Bob Schollum, Brad Shipton and Clint Rickards), there was so much the public – and the jury – didn’t know, with witnesses and evidence being with-held,” she says.
“The media only knew what they were allowed to know and this meant the public only knew what the media did – there were many half truths and at times, the media got it really wrong,” she said.
Louise believes entirely that from a legal perspective it was a sham.
“I’ve been through five trials (often as witnesses for others) since the early 1990’s, two of which were aborted by John Dewar,” she says of the man so recently convicted of attempting to obstruct or defeat the course of justice over his handling of her complaints of historic sexual abuse.
“Then there was the my own trial and I’d come out of that one every day shaking my head at the injustices in our justice system.”
“There’s so much that is “not allowed” to be heard, simply because of a defense lawyer’s successful arguments to a judge. The majority of such decisions are at a judges discretion and some relates to our laws – which are so draconian. Much of this information and evidence that could convict is simply withheld on some technicality.”
The constant high profile of the alleged sexual abuse has meant that people see things differently today than they did three years ago, she says.
“The public are seeing the injustices that were done and are calling for accountability,” she says.
“In all honesty, when I decided in 2004 to come out into the open with Phil Kitchen and that first article, I didn’t go out for two weeks. I was so afraid of what people would think. But then,” she says, “I had to go and do some shopping and you know, it took me two hours. The amount of people who came up to me and hugged me, shook my hand… and said thank you, was just mind blowing to me.”
The reason for those ‘thank you’” took a while to sink in.
“I couldn’t understand it – but now, after years and countless women coming up to me and saying ‘thank you for doing what I never had the courage to do,’ and the amount of people who knew what was going on but could do nothing about it.. it vindicated what I was doing,” she says.
“I had nothing to hide, I put myself and my family out there and I expected some of the flak I got because that’s the way people think sometimes. But I have to say the positives from all over New Zealand have absolutely outweighed the negatives in every area and I have to give a big thank you to the public for their support. Without them, my husband Ross, our parents and daughters, I could never have got this far.”
Louise says she believes people have got sick of the little guy being bullied; they know it goes on, but no-one stands up to fight it – and when they do, the public get in behind.
Looking back on what’s happened, Louise sees a lot of positive events that have occurred – and still are.
“The legislation changes, the others who have taken courage and come forward – and there are so many – the necessary change of police attitudes.” Louise says she simply cannot fault Operation Austins’ police officers, who she said went over and above the call of duty throughout this.
And Louise doesn’t intend to let the fight stop with the publishing of My Story.
“There has to be a change in our laws and justice system, not just for victims but for defendants too,” she says. She passionately wants to see the third option in a trial become reality so that instead of either guilty or not guilty, we also have as the Scottish do, unproven. That way, if other evidence comes to light, someone who has been wrongfully acquitted can be made to stand trial again.
Most importantly, that defense lawyers cannot accuse any victim of some of the names and events that make women of New Zealand so afraid to stand and ask for justice and that if a defendant has a relative previous conviction of a similar nature, that this must be heard in court.
“And for me, the most important aspect is that defendants should not be allowed to hide behind their lawyers – that they must take the stand and I’ll be fighting all the way to see these things happen,” she says.
As for the book, it’s got it all she says. Things that were never allowed to be said or shown in the courtrooms, the truth she’s been wanting to have heard all these years.
Whatever I say in this, Phil has been able to back up with facts – and that’s what’s important,’ she says.
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