Parole for Mt Maunganui rapist

PHIL REID/Dominion Post

BOB SCHOLLUM: Serving time for a 1989 rape and abduction.

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Convicted rapist and former policeman Robert Francis Schollum has been granted parole after the Parole Board reviewed its decision to deny him parole earlier this year.

Schollum was convicted in 2005, with Peter McNamara and former police officer Brad Shipton, of raping a woman in Mt Maunganui in January 1989.

He was sentenced to eight years in jail for rape, unlawful sexual connection and abduction for sex.

The woman said the men lured her into a lifesaving hut on the pretext of having a lunch date with one of them. Once there she was bound, raped, forced to perform oral sex and brutally violated.

The men said the sex was consensual.

Shipton was paroled last month and McNamara was freed in January.

Schollum was denied parole after a hearing in March when the Parole Board said he was still a risk to the community and had an arrogant view of his role in the pack rape of the woman. He asked for a review of the decision.

Schollum, Shipton, and former police officer Clint Rickards were acquitted in 2006 of raping Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas in the 1980s.

In a decision released this morning the Parole Board said Schollum "remains ashamed and embarrassed about his behaviour but is still insistent that he has been wrongfully convicted and that there was consent to the activities complained about".

Schollum was supported at the parole hearing by his wife and two family friends, one of whom was a prospective employer ready to hire him immediately for an administrative role.

Despite an appearance from Schollum's victim - who told the board "in very forceful terms of her distress and anguish at what occurred to her" - the board found Schollum would not be an "undue risk" to the safety of the community if released.

A psychologist's report said he had a low risk of re-offending, and the board said that was supported by his history.

"His own behaviour in prison has been impeccable," the board said.

"There is nothing in his prison record to disqualify him from release at this stage."

The victim had wanted a meeting with Schollum, but Schollum declined, saying such a meeting would make the situation worse not better.

The board said Schollum felt he would be forced to defend himself against the 'vehemence' of the victim's views.

The board noted a concern that media pressure could destabilise Schollum's return to the community.

Schollum, his wife and supporters were prepared for the media interest in him, and were confident they could cope.

"We think that the years that have passed since this offence and his very stable family and married life since that time, together with his employment and the other information we have received from the many others who have taken the time to support his application for parole, confirm the view of the psychologist that he is at low risk of re-offending," the board said.

Schollum and his wife of 11 years have two children.

As a condition of his release Schollum cannot talk to the media about his "trial, conviction, sentence, imprisonment, appeal or parole.

He is also banned from communicating or associating with his co-offenders or associates.

- with NZPA

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