Summarised by Centrist
The woman at the centre of the Jevon McSkimming scandal is calling for a wider inquiry into police culture, saying she was “bullied into silence”.
At the same time, senior officers protected one of their own.
The IPCA’s November report found police repeatedly failed to investigate Ms Z’s allegations that former deputy commissioner McSkimming groomed her when she was 21. Instead of testing her claims, police treated her anonymous emails as a threat to his career and charged her under the Harmful Digital Communications Act. She spent nearly 18 months under restrictive bail and was gagged by suppression orders imposed “to protect the reputation of McSkimming”.
The case escalated when detectives discovered McSkimming had used his police issued phone to search for bestiality and child exploitation images. He resigned and later pleaded guilty to possessing objectionable material. He will be sentenced this month.
A separate criminal investigation into Ms Z’s sexual assault allegations ended due to insufficient evidence. But she told the Herald, “I was ignored and badly let down. My life has been so damaged by this.”
The IPCA found police leadership “largely accepted McSkimming’s version of events” and failed to recognise that a young woman alleging abuse by a powerful officer “might present as a desperate person sending sometimes extreme and abusive emails in an attempt to be heard”.
Police Commissioner Richard Chambers has admitted the organisation “badly let down” Ms Z. Several senior officers have resigned, or face investigations, and the government will establish an Inspector General.
But Ms Z says the reforms do not go far enough. “Richard Chambers said he wants to move on. But there is some concerning behaviour in the wider police which needs more scrutiny.”
At a select committee hearing, Commissioner Chambers defended police performance and denied any culture or systemic racism problem, even as MPs grilled him over the damning IPCA report, falling public trust and missed recruitment targets.
