Police Minister Mark Mitchell and Police Commissioner Andrew Coster during their appearance before the Justice committee, Parliament, Wellington, 20 June, 2024.Photo / Mark Mitchell
Former Police Commissioner Andrew Coster claims two senior politicians knew more than they have publicly admitted about the handling of complaints against disgraced deputy commissioner Jevon McSkimming.
Speaking to Jack Tame in a pre-recorded interview on TVNZ’s Q+A programme this morning, Coster said Cabinet ministers from consecutive governments had been briefed “informally”.
Coster said he was made aware of McSkimming’s affair with a much younger woman in late 2020 after he had “been appointed as a non-statutory deputy commissioner”.
“It next presented in 2022 when we were preparing for a statutory appointment process.
“At the start of that process, or before the start of that process, I briefed the then Minister of Police [Chris Hipkins] on what I knew,” said Coster.
He says the informal briefing occurred in the back of a car as the pair travelled through the South Island.
Hipkins told Q+A that he had no recollection of the alleged conversation.
Coster also claimed he’d told current Minister of Police Mark Mitchell earlier than the November 2024 date Mitchell has previously suggested.
“There is no way that I was only just telling him about all of this in my last couple of weeks in the job,” said Coster.
Mitchell posted a response on his Facebook page.
“It is disappointing that following his resignation, that came with an apology to Police less than a week ago, Mr Coster is trying to deflect and relitigate matters. I firmly stand by all my statements and facts presented in relation to the IPCA report. Mr Coster’s recollections are wrong.
“I want to make very clear that Mr Coster never briefed me, either formally or informally, about Jevon McSkimming and Ms Z prior to 6 November 2024. I would note his recollections of disclosures in the IPCA report were often found to be inconsistent and unreliable,” said Mitchell.
The Minister then detailed his grounds for his formal briefing on the matter.
“Mr Coster was instructed by the PSC to brief me on the 6th of November it was not self-initiated by Coster. I rejected the narrative of the briefing that presented McSkimming as a victim. I immediately called a meeting with the PSC and the Solicitor General to bring forward my concerns.
“That meeting took place on the 7th of November the day after I had been briefed. If Coster had bought [sic] this forward to me at anytime earlier in 2024 then I would have immediately initiated the exact same actions,” said Mitchell.
Coster resigned this week from his role as the chief executive of the Social Investment Agency.
It followed a damning Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) report into the way police handled complaints against McSkimming, published in November. Coster had been on leave since the report was published.
Coster said his decision to resign was a result of his “acceptance of full responsibility for the shortcomings identified in the Independent Police Conduct Authority’s review of the handling of complaints against Jevon McSkimming during my tenure as Commissioner of Police”.
“I regret the impact on the young woman at the centre of this matter and sincerely apologise to her for the distress caused.”
The allegations were made by a woman, with whom McSkimming had an affair, over a number of years.
The woman, dubbed Ms Z because of suppression orders, spoke exclusively to the Herald about the “ongoing nightmare” she had suffered at the hands of the former Deputy Police Commissioner.
She had sent hundreds of anonymous emails over years, alleging McSkimming was a sexual predator who had groomed her.
While McSkimming had admitted a consensual affair with the much younger woman – she was 21 at the time, he was 42 – he denied the allegations and claimed she was motivated by revenge.
Senior police did not investigate the allegations, which continued as McSkimming sought the role of Police Commissioner, the most senior role within the police. The IPCA report noted the former police executive prioritised McSkimming’s ambitions in the force above investigating the complaints.
For years, that narrative was accepted by McSkimming’s supervisors, who instead used the emails as evidence to prosecute Ms Z amid McSkimming’s intention to replace outgoing Police Commissioner Andrew Coster.
McSkimming resigned in May after the discovery of objectionable images on his police devices, including child exploitation and bestiality material.
He pleaded guilty to charges related to that material and awaits sentencing.
During the Q+A interview Coster was asked why he should be trusted.
“I acted honestly. I acted in good faith. My judgments were wrong and I accept that, but, the thing that’s really grated on me, and part of the reason why I didn’t jump straight to resignation, is it was very important for me to have it acknowledged that the report does not find corruption.
“It does not find cover-up. It does not find collusion, and those, conversations that have played out publicly without me, or anyone being able to respond effectively, has maligned a group of people who acted with the right intent, albeit they got the judgement wrong,” said Coster.
Coster was also asked about Public Service Minister Judith Collins’ public comments made last month regarding corruption in the matter: “If it walks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, it’s not looking good, is it?” said Collins during a November press conference.
“I couldn’t believe how aggressively the media on this was positioned from the outset.
“In positioning the report publicly, you had ministers and others implying corruption and sometimes expressly saying cover-up. If the independent body assigned to investigate these things has not found that, why would you position it publicly that way?” said Coster.
Mitchell had also previously suggested on Q+A that Coster was leading a corrupt police executive - comments that he later withdrew.
“I was pleased the comments were withdrawn. They went well beyond what the report found and from my perspective, they are without basis,” said Coster.