Summarised by Centrist
A detailed timeline from the NZ Herald shows senior police and oversight bodies were aware of serious allegations against former Deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming long before his November 2025 guilty plea for possessing child exploitation and bestiality material, but failed to act.
McSkimming began an affair in 2016 with a woman later identified as the source of multiple complaints. When she began emailing police and oversight agencies in 2023, alleging sexual misconduct, then-Commissioner Andrew Coster and Deputy Commissioner Tania Kura treated her messages as harassment rather than evidence of potential crimes. Her emails were even used to charge her under the Harmful Digital Communications Act, charges later dropped.
Between December 2023 and January 2024, 36 emails containing these allegations were sent to Police Minister Mark Mitchell’s office.
Mitchell says Coster instructed police staff seconded to his office to redirect all correspondence about McSkimming to the Commissioner’s office and not share it with anyone else, including himself.
An Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) report later found that Coster and Kura ignored or downplayed the complaints, failed to refer them to integrity units, and “bypassed standard processes.” It also found that Coster attempted to influence the scope and timing of internal investigations while withholding information from the Public Service Commission during his tenure as Commissioner. Coster is currently on leave from his role as Chief Executive of the Social Investment Agency following the report’s release.
A criminal probe into McSkimming, dubbed Operation Herb, was quietly opened and closed in 2024 without being recorded in official databases. Internal police memos show repeated warnings from senior staff that the process violated policy and excluded integrity units.
Notably, the woman who accused McSkimming is herself facing court proceedings for allegedly harassing another police officer and his wife through a series of abusive emails.
After Coster’s departure in mid-2024, new Commissioner Richard Chambers was briefed only two days before assuming the top job. He later described the handling of the affair as “appalling,” citing “a total lack of leadership and integrity at the highest levels of Police.”
The government has announced the creation of an Inspector-General of Police to restore public trust after the IPCA found “serious misconduct” by multiple senior officers and “deliberate bypassing” of oversight mechanisms.
