The Police Commissioner and a sexual violence advocate have condemned the "significant failings" of the handling by senior officers of serious complaints made against disgraced former Deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming.
Yesterday a scathing IPCA report revealed serious misconduct at the highest levels of police over how they handled the accusations of sexual offending.
The release has caused shockwaves and seen former top cop Andrew Coster go on leave from his position as chief executive of the Social Investment Agency.
And Minister of Police Mark Mitchell said this morning that there had been "clear instructions" given to police staff in the ministerial office to not pass on emails about the situation to himself or his political staff.
“So unbeknownst to me, yes, there was a protocol put in place that meant that neither myself nor my political staff had visibility on the emails that that were being sent to my office.
“They were being sent straight through to [Police HQ], and there was clear instructions for them not to be raised with me," he said.
The IPCA report slammed senior police for failing to properly investigate the allegations by the woman who complained against McSkimming. He and the woman had been in a sexual relationship.
The woman herself was charged under the Harmful Digital Communications Act over emails she sent. That action was later dropped.
'No knowledge'
Speaking to Breakfast this morning, Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said he was briefed on the situation with McSkimming "just a couple of days before I started as the police commissioner".
"Prior to that, I had absolutely no knowledge of the situation at all," he said.
He said the very thorough IPCA report was "very convincing".
"Quite frankly, it's disgraceful. It's a total lack of leadership and integrity at the highest levels of New Zealand Police. It's the former executive, and I'm relieved that many of these people have left New Zealand Police.
Richard Chambers told Breakfast the situation was a "total lack of leadership and integrity at the highest levels of the New Zealand Police". (Source: Breakfast)
"The former leadership of New Zealand Police failed not only their own organisation that they were leading at the time, but the public of New Zealand."
Chambers said the police had enjoyed "high trust and confidence" from the public, and this incident was a "kick in the guts" for officers doing their jobs on the front lines.
"But I just want to be very clear, this is behaviour of the former New Zealand Police executive, and I'm looking forward to moving forward with a new team.
"So yes, we have some trust to rebuild, but just let's not detract from the 15,000 men and women of New Zealand police who turn out every day and night and do an incredible job. That is what I'm focused on leading I'm very connected to the front line."
He reiterated: "This won't happen under my leadership.
"I don't believe it will happen in future commissioners of New Zealand Police. This is a sad and dark day for New Zealand Police when this sort of behaviour gets exposed.
"What happened here was the senior leadership of New Zealand decided to depart from those processes and take action and do things frankly, that were in self interest and that is not acceptable."
'Where the hell did this come from?’
Sexual violence advocate Louise Nicholas told Breakfast she was saddened and angry about what had happened.
"When I read about what they had done with that particular woman, I thought, 'where the hell did this come from?’ Because we don't see that in the work that we do alongside police supporting survivors. I think made me even more angrier."
She said from what she had seen, officers were normally "absolutely brilliant" supporting survivors of sexual violence.
“My team and I, we work closely with police, and they are just absolutely brilliant with the way that they support the survivor and their whānau going through that whole process. So it was devastating to see that young woman was just used like that. It was wrong.”
Asked if this would discourage other victims of sexual violence from coming forward to police in the future, she urged people not to let what had happened in this case stop them from coming forward.
“Because McSkimming, [he] ain't those men and women that do a bloody good job."
She has seen examples of people within organisations calling out bad behaviour as they did not tolerate what they may have seen.
“They don't want what the actions of others to define the great work that they do.”
Mark Mitchell responds
Minister of Police Mark Mitchell speaks to Breakfast about the damning IPCA report into the Jevon McSkimming investigation. (Source: Breakfast)
Minister Mitchell was asked about police shielding the case from him on Breakfast this morning and he said it was “an extension of the behaviour that we've seen highlighted in the IPCA complaint".
“Where we had, you know, five very senior police officers that were subverting processes in what was a very overt attempt to protect one of their own, another deputy commissioner. It's just awful on every level.”
Asked if Coster resigned from his position early by choice or if he was moved on, Mitchell said he brought up concerns about Coster’s “capability and delivery” about three months into his role as Police Minister.
“They were not integrity related. I felt very strongly that Andrew probably had skills that sat better in other places."
He said at that time there was nothing to suggest any integrity issues.
“In actual fact, you know, I used to often say that we don't see eye to eye and we have different views in terms of public safety and what we need to do. But, you know, he's a man of integrity, because I firmly believed that.
“And there was no evidence that nothing came forward to make me question or challenge that.
“Obviously, having read the IPCA report, my views on that have completely changed, and I think there was a complete lack of moral compass in terms of the leadership and the decisions that were being made.”
Asked if there was Government oversight on this matter, Mitchell said he moved quickly once he was informed of what was happening with McSkimming.
“Certainly from my side of it, as soon as information was brought forward, I responded quickly to that with Jevon McSkimming. I responded very quickly to suspend him, and then I was very clear about the fact that he had lost my confidence.
“And obviously I made a recommendation to the Prime Minister that he should go. He actually resigned. He was given the opportunity to respond to the allegations against him, and he chose to resign.”
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