When the Herald approached police for answers, Savage said they were met with the typical “no comment” but it was revealed separate criminal proceedings were under way.
“They said there’s actually another prosecution which we can’t tell you about, and there are massive suppression orders all over it. That means essentially you are gagged from saying anything.”
That prosecution was the one police brought against the woman who made the allegations that sparked the years-long scandal.
Savage said the suppression orders around that case were ostensibly to protect McSkimming’s reputation.
“He was about to put his hand up for the top job. They didn’t take these allegations from this young woman seriously at the time. They chose to basically accept his version of events on face value and that’s led to these charges and the suppressions.
“Instead of stopping to think, maybe she’s telling the truth here, they’ve just wholesale bought his version of events and brought down the entire weight of the state to prosecute her.”
For Savage and other reporters, the fight to get the suppression orders lifted was frustrating.
“As we kept on following these cases throughout the year we kind of knew that the IPCA [Independent Police Conduct Authority] report was going to come out and make these quite damning findings about how senior police handled the allegations.”
Savage said it took until 5pm on the day of the IPCA report’s release for the Herald and others to have those suppressions lifted.
“If we didn’t succeed, the IPCA report couldn’t be published and we couldn’t tell you the full story,” he said.
Even as a veteran reporter, Savage was shocked by the report’s findings.
“It’s a bombshell of a report. I haven’t seen anything quite like it in 20 years of reporting on these matters.”
He said the case has done a huge amount of damage to police and revived memories of past cover-ups.
“It resurrects a lot of bad memories from the Bazley reports 20 years ago,” he said. “This is history repeating in some regards.”
Looking ahead, Savage believes the fallout isn’t over.
“I would not be surprised if at some point there’s going to be some kind of civil or compensation claim brought against the police.
“It’s had a devastating impact on her.”
Listen to the full episode to hear more on
- The pressures and legal risks of reporting on people in power.
- The reaction inside police headquarters as the report landed.
- What the investigation revealed about the power imbalance at the heart of the case.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
