The Department of Internal Affairs acknowledged that withholding information about the disgraced former senior police officer Jevon McSkimming from Police Minister Mark Mitchell was inappropriate.
Last week, reports revealed that Mitchell’s office had received 36 emails with allegations against McSkimming dating back to December 2023. However, Mitchell stated that then Police Commissioner Andrew Coster instructed police personnel in the ministerial office to forward the emails straight to his own office, without sharing them with the minister or his political team.
“It is not appropriate for departments to withhold information from ministerial staff or ministers,” Department of Internal Affairs chief executive Paul James said.
“We will be reminding agency chief executives of this, as well as reminding our staff of existing policies and guidance on dealing with incoming correspondence.”
Instead of examining whether the sex allegations could be validated, the emails sent by a young woman were used by police to prosecute her for allegedly conducting a harassment campaign against the former senior officer.
Though the charge against the woman was eventually dropped, police proceeded to prosecute her for emails she sent to the detective who initially arrested her and his wife. Police have since defended this prosecution decision.
Mark Mitchell has strongly defended his staff who handled the emails, stating they were placed in an extremely difficult situation and were simply performing their duties. He explained that he would not have expected the staff managing the emails to his office containing the allegations against McSkimming to share them with him because they would never have read those emails themselves.
When the emails landed in his inbox, a staff member would determine the relevant portfolio and then forward the emails to the appropriate personnel. Mitchell said they do not read through each individual email.
“There is a massive amount of correspondence that comes through. It’s quite simply their job to look at what portfolio that relates to, not to go through and read every email,” he said.
After a report from the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) revealed the magnitude of the scandal, current Police Commissioner Richard Chambers held a joint press conference with Mitchell and Public Service Minister Judith Collins.
All three individuals were unequivocally condemning McSkimming, Coster, and the executive staff and procedures that allowed the failure to occur.
Chambers apologised to the woman for how the previous police leadership mishandled her initial sex allegations. He pledged to do everything possible to prevent such a failure from happening again.
Meanwhile, Mitchell expressed his feelings of frustration and disappointment, stating that “At the centre of this is a woman who has been let down by the former police executive and the system.”
“I cannot express how frustrated and disappointed I have been since becoming aware of the situation,” Mitchell said.