Police Commissioner Richard Chambers has given a scathing assessment of his predecessor Andrew Coster’s handling of allegations against Jevon McSkimming and the decision to keep sex complaints against the former top cop secret.
Speaking to Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB this morning, Chambers said he was briefed on the matter by a senior detective a mere two days before he took up the top role on November 25, 2024.
Chambers was emphatic about his disappointment in Coster’s secrecy around the scandal.
“It’s an absolute disgrace. It’s lacking in leadership, it’s lacking integrity. You know, so he’s going to need to answer to that,” Chambers said.
McSkimming served as New Zealand’s Deputy Police Commissioner until an investigation uncovered objectionable material on his work devices earlier this year.
It has now been revealed the probe concerned allegations of sexual misconduct – accusations high-ranking police were aware of, going so far as to arrest the complainant on harassment charges.
This morning, it was revealed Police Minister Mark Mitchell’s office had received 36 emails containing allegations against McSkimming since December 2023.
Mitchell has told the Herald then Police Commissioner Coster directed police staff in the ministerial office to send the emails directly to his own office and to not share them with the minister or his political staff.
Chambers also told Ryan Bridge on Herald NOW this morning that Coster never personally “told me anything about this stuff”.
He said his predecessor has “never spoken to me about it at all” and called the police executive’s conduct “appalling”.
“A Commissioner must never get involved, and other senior leaders must never get involved in matters of this nature”, Chambers said, “but they involved themselves in this. The interference was clear for all to see.”
Chambers said the entire controversy “shocks me” and impacts the reputation of all police.
“[It] lets us all down when the most senior leaders of the New Zealand Police behave in this way.”
He also criticised McSkimming’s lack of “personal responsibility” throughout the appointment process.
McSkimming, 52, had claimed the woman who made complaints about him was seeking “revenge” after their consensual extra-marital affair soured.
“I think there was a narrative that they bought into ... that there had been some issues as a consequence of an affair that had occurred a number of years prior. Even that I knew nothing about,” Chambers said this morning.
But he admitted senior police involved in the appointment process also had to take responsibility for believing McSkimming’s story.
Acknowledging the five or six members of the police executive mentioned in the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) report, he said while most of the staff have since left the police, employment investigations are under way for three other individuals.
Now that Coster has moved on to become chief executive of the Social Investment Agency, Chambers said the matter was “between him and his employer, the Public Service Commission”.
Coster told the Herald in a statement that he would not be commenting on the “employment conversation”.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell was asked on Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking Breakfast if Coster could get a payout if he loses his new job because of behaviour in his previous job.
He couldn’t comment because the Public Service Commission process was under way, Mitchell said, prompting Hosking to ask the minister if it would look bad should this occur.
“Well, I think most members of the public that would be their view on it ... the enormity and the size and the atrocious behaviour of our most senior police officers in the country is a complete and utter breaking [of] the trust that they have with the public.”
Asked who had done worse – McSkimming or Coster – Mitchell said all police officers involved “are as bad as each other”.
“They have put the rest of our outstanding police officers in an awful position, who turn up every day and quite simply do outstanding work.”
Former Police Minister Ginny Anderson, who appeared on the political panel with Mitchell, told Hosking she wasn’t told of the McSkimming or related issues while she was in the role.
Anderson was the minister in 2023 under the previous Labour Government.
“But ... having read that report in the small hours of this morning, we understand there’s been multiple emails sent to multiple ministers’ offices, and so that search is now going on to see if there were emails sent that weren’t raised.”
Act leader David Seymour spoke to Ryan Bridge on Herald NOW this morning and said it was “very hard” to see how Coster could continue the role.
“Just bear in mind he’s an employee and there’s an employment process to go through ... based on the things that I’ve heard to date, I’d find it very hard to see how he could continue.
“But I can tell you that having talked very briefly with [fellow minister] Nicola Willis, she’s got no time for any of [those involved].”
Complainants’ trust needed to be restored in the police, Seymour, whose party is part of the coalition Government with National and NZ First, said.
“This is a disgraceful set of events.”
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson told Bridge accountability was needed.
“We need to get to the bottom of what’s happened and there has to be responsibility taken.”
McSkimming missed out on the top job after the sex claims were inadvertently discovered during the vetting process, and police belatedly investigated the woman’s allegations at the end of last year.
McSkimming maintained his innocence and said the allegations were motivated by revenge to destroy his career.
However, during the course of the investigation, detectives discovered McSkimming had used his work devices to search for pornography, including bestiality and child sex exploitation material, for at least five years.
The 52-year-old resigned in disgrace and was later charged with possession of objectionable material.