The damning IPCA report exposes senior police failings in the McSkimming case – and awakens memories of a similar scandal two decades ago, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin.
To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.
A grim day for the NZ Police
A bombshell report by the Independent Police Conduct Authority has found “significant failings” and “serious misconduct” by some of New Zealand’s most senior officers in their handling of sexual misconduct allegations against former deputy commissioner Jevon McSkimming. Released on Tuesday after the lifting of a long-standing suppression order, the 135-page report details how police ignored repeated pleas for help from the complainant and showed what the authority called an “unquestioning acceptance of Mr McSkimming’s narrative of events”. The government said it will establish an inspector general of police to strengthen police oversight, RNZ reports.
‘Devastating impact’
As Stuff’s Katie Ham and Catrin Owen detail, the complainant, known in the report as Ms Z, met McSkimming through a sports club in 2015 when she was 21 and he was a 40-year-old superintendent. Their relationship, which she describes as violent, ended several years later, after which she sent anonymous emails and made phone calls accusing McSkimming of predatory behaviour. Instead of investigating her claims, police used her emails as evidence to prosecute her under the Harmful Digital Communications Act, portraying her allegations as harassing and false. “They accepted Mr McSkimming’s denials without meaningful inquiry and placed the full weight of the criminal justice system on my client for more than a year until the charge against her was withdrawn,” her lawyer Steven Lack told the Herald’s Jared Savage (paywalled).
Lack said the experience had a “devastating impact” on the woman, who was silenced by sweeping suppression orders and treated as a threat to McSkimming rather than his victim. It was only after the IPCA intervened that police belatedly investigated her allegations – by which time McSkimming’s own misconduct had come to light.
Failures at the top
According to the IPCA, senior officers repeatedly failed to follow integrity rules and procedures for investigating sexual assault. Ms Z’s complaints were ignored and internal advice to refer the matter for investigation by the Police National Integrity Unit and the IPCA was disregarded. When the case was finally referred to the IPCA, then-commissioner Andrew Coster attempted to limit its scope and timing, in what some colleagues viewed as an effort to protect McSkimming’s candidacy for the top job. Coster has been put on leave from his new role as the chief executive of the Social Investment Agency and public service commissioner Sir Brian Roche, Coster’s employer, is considering his future, the Herald reports.
Police commissioner Richard Chambers, who succeeded Coster, said the findings revealed “inexcusable conduct” and a “total lack of leadership and integrity at the highest levels of Police”. In an emotional statement, he apologised to the woman, saying “she was ignored and badly let down”, and described the revelations as a “kick in the guts” for the 15,000 officers who serve with integrity. Most of those singled out in the report are no longer employed by the police, but Chambers has appointed an independent King’s Counsel to carry out employment investigations “where required”.
History repeating
Two decades have passed since the last major reckoning over police attitudes to sexual misconduct within its own ranks. The 2004 Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct – prompted by Louise Nicholas’s shocking allegations of rape by senior officers in the 1980s – exposed a male-dominated culture marked by loyalty and secrecy, and found that police management lacked consistent processes for handling complaints against officers. Led by Dame Margaret Bazley, the inquiry made 60 recommendations to improve integrity, accountability and the treatment of victims.
At the time, police promised reform. Then-commissioner Howard Broad issued a public apology to the women involved and pledged to “make the changes necessary to prevent this sort of behaviour ever happening again.” Yet Tuesday’s report suggests that at the highest levels, many of the same failures have endured through the decades: a reluctance to scrutinise powerful men, an eagerness to protect their reputations, and a disregard for the voices of victims.
