Child exploitation and bestiality material were allegedly found on former Deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming’s work devices, it can now be revealed.
The revelation comes after a High Court judge dismissed an application to prevent media reporting the nature of the alleged objectionable material.
McSkimming resigned as the country’s second most powerful police officer in May amid separate investigations by the Independent Police Conduct Authority and police.
His resignation came a week after RNZ approached him, via his lawyer, with allegations about material found on his work devices.
RNZ earlier revealed pornography found on McSkimming’s work devices was being investigated as alleged objectionable material.
His lawyer Linda Clark was then granted a rare “superinjunction” by Justice Karen Grau that prohibited reporting that disclosed the nature of the allegedly objectionable material, as well as the existence of the injunction itself.
Following a teleconference held by Justice Gwyn, the order prohibiting publication of the nature of the allegedly objectionable material was continued — but the order prohibiting the existence of the injunction was not continued, meaning RNZ could report the fact of McSkimming’s application and the interim result.
On June 3, a hearing was held in the High Court at Wellington before Justice Karen Grau in relation to the injunction. RNZ, NZME and Stuff were jointly represented by Robert Stewart KC.
On Friday, July 11, Justice Grau released her judgement, declining McSkimming’s application, but her reasons for doing so were suppressed and the existing interim injunction was continued to allow McSkimming time to file an appeal, should he wish to do so.
No notice of appeal was filed, and RNZ could now report the type of objectionable publication purportedly found on his work devices.
Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said he was unable to comment at this time. Police Minister Mark Mitchell also declined to comment.
In November last year, McSkimming was placed on “special leave” as the IPCA and then police carried out their separate investigations. RNZ understands it was during police’s investigation that the alleged objectionable material was found on his work devices. A second criminal investigation was then launched.
At the injunction hearing, Clark alleged information deemed “essential” to the investigation had been leaked to the media, who were intending to publish the information.
The information gathered during the police investigation was “confidential”, she said.
She said that every time police had provided some substantive piece of information to McSkimming, it had appeared within the media “in a day or two days without exception”.
Clark said there was public interest in McSkimming’s situation. She said public interest had been served to date.
Stewart KC said there were two sorts of harm that could be considered, one of which was harm to the police investigation. He said the police had no concern that further disclosure of the material would impact their investigation.
In relation to privacy, Stewart KC said McSkimming was “quite clearly” a public figure.
“There is a huge public interest in these investigations into Mr McSkimming’s abrupt resignation from office, first working day after he had been provided with the material by the Public Service Commission.”
Stewart KC said his clients submitted that, if the interim restraint should be continued, then “matters should be left to take their course, if there is to be any restraining at all, it should be as limited as possible for as short as possible”.
At the time of McSkimming’s resignation Police Minister Mark Mitchell said he was recently informed of allegations of a “very serious nature”, separate to the investigation that led to him being suspended.
“When Mr McSkimming was invited to respond to these allegations he chose to resign. Mr McSkimming’s resignation has confirmed my view that his continuation in the role was untenable.”
The IPCA earlier announced it was investigating allegations of misconduct by McSkimming following a complaint from a member of the public.
It is also conducting an investigation into if there was misconduct or neglect of duty by any other police officers or employee in responding to the allegations.
The investigations were being given priority, but no timeframe for their completion date could be given.
McSkimming was one of the final two candidates for New Zealand’s top cop job last year, with Chambers eventually appointed police commissioner.
McSkimming was promoted to statutory deputy commissioner in 2023 on the recommendation of then-prime minister Chris Hipkins.
Late last year he was overseeing road policing and operational services, which include strategy, media and communications, risk and assurance, and firearms regulation and reform.
During his appointment process, it was noted he had a “relatively unique career path”, working at police headquarters since 2010 across a range of areas: strategy, service delivery, resolution, financial planning, arms admin, ICT and infrastructure.
McSkimming joined the police in 1996 and worked on the frontline in Auckland and Southland.
He had also been responsible for large restructures – as well as managing police IT systems, property portfolio, vehicles, and launching the 105 non-emergency number.
Rapid review
The investigation into McSkimming led to concerns that staff could bypass internal controls and “exploit vulnerabilities to access inappropriate content”.
The concerns prompted Police Commissioner Richard Chambers to order a “rapid review” of police’s information security (INFOSEC) controls to ensure police had sufficiently strong controls to prevent or detect the misuse of police technology and equipment for non-work-related purposes.
A summary of the review said some key issues were identified, including weaknesses in technology configuration, lack of visibility over user activity and gaps in governance.
The report included key findings and recommendations in relation to each of the risks.
There was “inconsistent application” of internet access policies across different workgroups as well as a “lack of robust filtering mechanisms” to consistently prevent access to unauthorised websites.
The review also found there was “insufficient monitoring of internet usage to detect and respond to potential security threats and inappropriate usage.”
Other findings included unmanaged devices being used for operational activities and inadequate monitoring of user activity and network traffic.
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