The Waipareira Trust should rethink its decision to take on former top policeman Clint Rickards to work with troubled youth, Women's Refuges boss Heather Henare says.
West Auckland urban Maori organisation Waipareira Trust said it was negotiating with Mr Rickards, who was cleared in the High Court of sex charges, for a part time job to reduce the crime rate among Maori youth.
Mr Rickards resigned as assistant police commissioner in November last year, after three years on suspension while sex charges were resolved. He was acquitted in the High Court at Auckland in March 2006 of raping Louise Nicholas in the 1980s.
In March last year he was also acquitted on sex charges against another woman.
Ms Henare, chief executive of National Collective of Independent Women's Refuges, said today that Mr Rickards had abused a position of responsibility in his community.
Ms Henare said she was concerned the Waipareira Trust did not appreciate how vulnerable young people were, and she called on it to rethink the decision.
Mr Rickards' first thoughts after his acquittal were not for his family but for his "convicted rapist mates in prison" and his complete denial of their guilt, she said.
His former colleagues Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum were then in prison for separate rape convictions.
"This is someone who is going to deter young people from committing more offences?" Ms Henare asked Radio New Zealand.
Mr Rickards continued not to acknowledge or take responsibility for his part in behaviour that was unacceptable, she said.
"I don't consider him a role model or someone who should be mentoring our young children.
"If I had a young daughter who was going to a youth group and Clint Rickards was put up as someone who was working with her I would be very concerned for her continued safety." Waipareira Trust chief executive John Tamihere said the trust was beginning a new youth development programme.
Mr Rickards was "more than welcome to participate in that if we can come to terms", Mr Tamihere said.
Mr Tamihere said taking on Mr Rickards was a matter of "whether we can utilise his undoubted experience and skills in dropping youth offending in our area and lifting education".
"He brings a huge and distinguished background in the police.
"He has faced the full force of the criminal justice system. He has been accredited by the New Zealand Law Society (to become a lawyer).
"What we do in our community is to look for people which might be able, through force of experience and background to actually apply some of that experience to dropping youth offending." He said Mr Rickards would not be a youth mentor.
"He'll part of a multi-disciplinary team from social workers all the way through to clinical psychologists." He said the team was aimed at switching kids off crime and onto a more positive lifestyle.
Mr Tamihere said Mr Rickards had the right to redeem himself after he had faced the full onslaught of the criminal justice system.
He said some people did not like giving a person another chance and kicked them when they were down.
"I don't," Mr Tamihere said.
