Editorial: Yet another sex scandal

OPINION: A couple of times each year a new set of statistics will confirm Iceland is the least corrupt nation on Earth, and New Zealand is up there with the rest of Scandinavia and Singapore.

It gives our egos a massage, but doesn't tell us anything new. All in all, New Zealand is still dominated by honest people, and few of the dishonest ones get very far up the food chain.

In recent years the highest profile corruption case involving police has centred on the Louise Nicholas sex scandal. It makes the case of former policeman Nathan Thorose Connolly all the more interesting and unusual. Connolly, who was in the police traffic unit from 2003 to 2008, was this week found guilty of using his position to get free sex from a Christchurch prostitute. A jury didn't buy the Crown's claim that he corruptly obtained a bribe or that the sex was induced by threat – but most significantly, they did not buy Connolly's claim that the regular sessions he had with the woman were part of "cultivating" an informant.

Connolly was a paying client of the woman when he pulled her car over in December 2006 and said he could give her $1000 worth of tickets. But instead, he offered her the option of giving him free sex. The High Court and Justice French heard the details during Connolly's trial which finished with a jury verdict condemning him on Tuesday. Connolly was allowed bail, but when he returns to court for sentencing on December 17 he will be bringing his toothbrush.

The maximum sentence for the offence the 31-year-old has been convicted of is 14 years. For Connolly, though, this is not new territory. What the Crown could not tell the jury during the sex trial was that Connolly had earlier been successfully sued for police brutality and his disgraceful behaviour had cost the taxpayer $10,000. In late 2005 Connolly had elbowed a handcuffed Steven Fredericks, 23, three times in the face. In that case Connolly, who denied hitting the man, was condemned by a judge even though another policeman at the scene said he did not see anything "untoward". At the time Judge Colin Doherty ruled on the "gratuitous assault" in late 2008, Connolly was already on extended leave.

In both cases, courts rejected Connolly's evidence.

The annual cost of crime in New Zealand has not been accurately measured, but taxpayers invest in trying to keep it down by funding a police force. Sadly, Nathan Connolly graduated as a policeman to uphold the law, but then spent his career breaking it. He has added to the crime bill in the same way thieves, fraudsters and violent criminals have.

Connolly had only to look at the consequences police linked with group sex scandals two decades earlier faced to see what was in store for him. Those North Island policemen continued and in some cases completed their careers before the weight of evidence and publicity forced an investigation. It is pleasing to note Connolly was not afforded such an opportunity – and that his victim did not have to wait for 20 years to be heard.

- © Fairfax NZ News