The remarkable rise and fall of a top cop embroiled in a scandal

Saturday, 17 May 2025

Jevon McSkimming came within a hair’s breadth of being New Zealand’s police commissioner. Instead, the high-flying cop resigned earlier this year amid serious criminal allegations which later resulted in charges he has now admitted. But the story of his rapid rise and remarkable fall also raises critical questions about who else knew what was going on - and what they did.

This story was first published in May, but updated on Thursday after he pleaded guilty to possessing both child sexual exploitation and bestiality material.

On October 30 last year, two men took turns appearing before a six-person panel in Wellington.

They wore the same blue uniform, and they wanted the same job: Police Commissioner of New Zealand.

One was Richard Chambers, a cop who’d spent years on Auckland and Wellington’s front lines, before being rejected for a deputy commissioner job 18 months earlier.

The other was Jevon McSkimming, whose police career was as different as it had been remarkable in many aspects: Going from constable in the two-cop town of Murchison, to the capital’s top cop within four years.

McSkimming had leapfrogged Chambers to get the deputy commissioner’s job in March 2023, becoming the second most senior officer in the country, the man who would step into Commissioner Andy Coster’s progressive shoes if Coster became ill or incapacitated.

Passed over, Chambers took a secondment with Interpol in France.

But when the government changed in October 2023, and new Police Minister Mark Mitchell’s relationship with Coster turned testy, the seeds were sown for a shakeup in the police hierarchy.

In September 2024, Coster announced he was quitting before his five-year term was up.

Though nine people applied for the vacant commissioner’s role, it was widely accepted it was a two-horse race - Chambers or McSkimming - and they were the only candidates interviewed.

When the selection panel met that Wednesday to choose who they would recommend to the Prime Minister as Coster’s replacement, they decided Chambers was the right person, citing his “frontline operational experience and credibility”, and ability to communicate with the public.

McSkimming would have been expected to stay in his role as Chambers’ deputy. And he did. At 51, he had time to rise to the top job if he wanted.

But two weeks later, on November 14, Jevon McSkimming, the man who might have been king, was secretly sent home on “special leave”.

It would be the beginning of the end of McSkimming’s meteoric but increasingly murky police career.

And it would spark an investigation into what could become one of policing’s biggest scandals - a scandal that now threatens to see other careers and reputations dragged down and destroyed.

How it all began

More than 20 months earlier, in February 2023, a Stuff reporter received an email containing explicit allegations about McSkimming. It was the kind of thing that often drops into journalists’ inboxes, and usually lies somewhere between bluster and bullshit.

The emails about McSkimming continued throughout 2023, with further concerning allegations, but little proof that would sustain a story.

The things suggested could scarcely be immune to office whispers and gossip.

In that time, however, McSkimming’s star continued to rise.

On March 28, 2023, six weeks after allegations against McSkimming reached Stuff, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins accepted advice from officials that McSkimming was a “fit and proper” person, that he was “honest and trustworthy”, and should be appointed deputy commissioner.

Hipkins has insisted there were no red flags regarding McSkimming.

In statement after McSkimming pleaded guilty, Hipkins said the advice he received for McSkimming’s appointment was “completely inadequate”.

“I feel let down by that.”

And the only hint of concern can be found in a letter from Hipkins’ office to the Cabinet Appointment and Honours Committee.

“Deputy Commissioner McSkimming,” it begins, before the remainder of the sentence is redacted from the document that was publicly released.

It then goes on to say: “This is not seen as an impediment to Deputy Commissioner McSkimming’s appointment.”

Three weeks later, McSkimming began his new role, the second most powerful officer in the country.

The rise and rise of Jevon McSkimming

His career had begun in more modest fashion and offices.

After growing up in Dunedin, McSkimming graduated from Wellington’s police college in 1996, and was sent to Auckland where he worked as a constable for four years.

In 2000, recently married, he was transferred to Gore, telling the Southland Times the main reason for his shift was for the lifestyle.

“In Auckland, it’s quite hard to get ahead on a policeman’s salary, where down here, you’re not too bad off.”

While in Gore, McSkimming was awarded the police bronze medal for his actions when threatened by a man who had barricaded himself in a house, armed with kitchen knives.

McSkimming and other officers subdued the man, and extinguished the fire he had lit.

In January 2005, McSkimming was posted to Murchison, a town of 700, with a bustling cafe, the serpentine Buller River nearby, and the similarly twisting SH6 keeping him busy attending vehicle accidents.

Initially, McSkimming was the only cop, and felt like “the boy with his thumb in the dyke”, until another officer was stationed there.

But after 10 years as a constable, McSkimming moved from the provinces to the capital, and began a sudden and swift rise.

After re-writing rural officers’ work conditions, he went to the Police College to run promotion courses for sergeants and senior sergeants.

By 2010, he was acting area commander for Wellington and Porirua - the capital’s top cop.

National roles and a promotion to superintendent followed, as McSkimming oversaw the roll out of iPads and more than 9000 iPhones to frontline staff.

From 2015, he was an assistant commissioner, overseeing police technology services as its chief information officer.

He also helmed the creation of the non-emergency 105 phone line in 2019, and managed the police property portfolio and vehicle fleet.

His own property portfolio and vehicle fleet grew as his career flourished.

Along with the $2 million, 528sqm two-storey house in Te Horo where he lives, McSkimming and his wife also owned two Waikanae houses, one of which recently sold, and the other is for sale.

McSkimming was renowned for his own fast and flash sports cars, including an Audi R8, and was a director of the company Exotic Car Tours NZ Ltd.

He raced motorbikes until an accident in about 2012, after which he took up gliding.

McSkimming became an instructor and bought his own glider, appearing in a promotional police video about his flying passion.

New police commissioner Andy Coster appointed McSkimming a deputy commissioner in 2020, the two men appearing in smiling promotional photos, sharing matching pressed uniforms and hairstyles swept to the right.

And in 2023, this role was made statutory - appointed by politicians rather than the commissioner - adding weight to McSkimming’s position and an increment to his salary.

His rise came despite having virtually no investigative experience or being a detective, with even the Public Service Commission noting McSkimming had “a relatively unique career path within New Zealand Police”.

But Coster enthused that McSkimming led by example, and brought “a positive culture to police that enables our people to perform”.

However, beyond the back slapping and hand clapping, rumours were beginning to swirl about McSkimming. Rumours that culminated with McSkimming suddenly being sent home, just two weeks after he’d vied with Chambers for the top job in New Zealand policing.

News of this dramatic move was kept secret for several weeks, but on December 12, 2024, media reported McSkimming was on leave while investigations into his actions were carried out.

Stuff revealed the investigations related to McSkimming’s conduct towards a former non-sworn female police employee, who was much younger than the deputy commissioner.

On December 23, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon wrote to Governor-General Cindy Kiro and “respectfully” advised she suspend McSkimming from his position, effective from the date she signed it.

Below Luxon’s underlined, sloping signature, and underneath the single word “Suspended”, Kiro added her looping signature later that day.

McSkimming was out, just in time for Christmas.

The scandal unravels

Whatever dampener this put on McSkimming’s Christmas celebrations, he appeared optimistic in the New Year.

In January, his lawyer stated a suspension in such circumstances was normal, and McSkimming remained on full pay.

“Mr McSkimming is cooperating fully with police and looks forward to the investigation being concluded swiftly, after which he expects to resume his duties as Deputy Commissioner.'

But Stuff’s attempts to gain clarity on the situation were rebuffed by police, the Prime Minister, and Police Minister Mark Mitchell.

In a dismissive response to an Official Information Act request, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Cameron Burrows, insisted “No public interest has been identified that would be sufficient to outweigh the responses for withholding that information.”

The official position that the public had no legitimate reason to know about the dramatic suspension of the country’s second highest police officer, stymied coverage of McSkimming’s situation for several months.

But on one afternoon in May, Police Minister Mark Mitchell dropped a bombshell, announcing McSkimming had resigned, and a criminal investigation into him was ongoing.

“I instructed the Public Service Commission to commence the process to remove Mr McSkimming from office after allegations of a very serious nature recently came to light, separate to the investigation that led to him being suspended,” Mitchell said.

In an extraordinary statement that abandoned previous politeness and pussyfooting, Mitchell was blunt: McSkimming had jumped before he was pushed.

“The Policing Act is very clear: A Deputy Commissioner of Police must be a ‘fit and proper’ person. They are rightly held to the highest standards of conduct, and this new information called into serious question Mr McSkimming’s fitness for office.”

When McSkimming was invited to respond to the allegations against him he chose to quit, Mitchell said.

“Mr McSkimming’s resignation has confirmed my view that his continuation in the role was untenable,” he added.

Media quickly reported objectionable material had allegedly been found on one of McSkimming’s work devices.

Later, after a lengthy legal battle that saw McSkimming’s lawyer seek a rarely used emergency injunction from the High Court, Stuff was able to report the alleged material contained images of child sexual exploitation and bestiality.

He was subsequently arrested and charged with eight serious offences - four of them bestiality, three child exploitation and one with child exploitation and bestiality - spanning from July 2020 to December 2024.

In September, police announced McSkimming would not face charges in relation to the alleged sexual misconduct with the former junior female staffer.

Assistant commissioner Mike Johnson said the investigation found the evidential test for prosecution hadn’t been met. This decision was reviewed by a King’s Counsel and peer reviewed by a Crown Law appointed barrister, Johnson said.

However, that wasn’t the end of McSkimming’s woes.

On November 6, he pleaded guilty to three representative charges of possessing both child sexual exploitation and bestiality material. The five additional charges were withdrawn.

He is due to be sentenced at the Wellington District Court on December 17.

A senior police source, who's in a leadership role, said McSkimming's offending was 'horrific' and had 'ruined the reputation of the force that's been forged off good police work over the years'.

The source said they'd experienced abuse from the public as a result of the fallout of the former top cop's actions.

They said McSkimming's use of his work devices to commit the offending for 'deviant purposes' showed how 'entitled and arrogant' he was, and restrictions imposed on internal police device use since had made their job more difficult.

'He's let everybody down. Good riddance to him.'

The beginning of the end

Stuff understands concerns about McSkimming exploded in the crucial two weeks after he was interviewed for the commissioner’s job.

While the selection panel recommended Chambers over McSkimming, the final decision lay with the Police Minister and Prime Minister.

So, in order to provide a potential backup, extensive integrity checks on both Chambers and McSkimming were carried out.

What was uncovered led to an investigation being launched, and McSkimming being stood down.

When news of his deputy’s resignation broke, Police Commissioner Richard Chambers cut short his visit to the World Police Summit in Dubai, landing back in Wellington to a media maelstrom.

“I have high expectations of all police staff and will address it if those standards are not met, irrespective of rank or role,” Chambers said.

“This is not just about my own views and expectations. It is the standard the public and the police deserve.”

In the wake of McSkimming’s shock resignation, reporters visited his home on the Kāpiti Coast, north of Wellington, where they were met with pulled curtains, dogs barking behind closed doors, and a laminated sign at the entrance to the impressive driveway that seemed more appropriate for a wedding: “Entry by Invitation only.”

Those who made it to the front door were greeted by a more pointed sign: “Unless you have been invited, please leave the property.”

Two days later, the signs were gone, and instead, the gate at the bottom of the driveway was chained.

A woman in a passing car slowed to shout: “Just leave him alone, he’s been through enough.”

Adam White, the pastor at Kāpiti’s Connect Church, which McSkimming is understood to attend, said he was “aware of the investigation involving a member of our church.

“We continue to uphold all those involved in prayer, and kindly ask that the privacy of our church community be respected.”

McSkimming’s colleagues contacted by Stuff have also been reluctant to speak out.

Some have mentioned arrogance. Others have offered that he’s a nice guy, a straight shooter and a good cop. Many have mentioned their concerns for his family.

All are shocked by his downfall.

Former police commissioner Andy Coster, now the Secretary for Social Investment, acknowledged he had worked closely with McSkimming.

Sporting a beard rather than his clean-shaven police image, Coster remained tight-lipped about McSkimming.

He repeatedly parried questions from Stuff, saying “multiple investigations” were underway that needed to be concluded, and he couldn’t comment.

‘Multiple investigations’ enter final stages

Generally, there has been an effort from officers to separate themselves from the multiple investigations that followed McSkimming’s resignation and subsequent criminal charges.

In May, the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) confirmed it had opened an investigation into allegations of misconduct by the former deputy police commissioner.

At the time, the IPCA investigations manager, Stu Graham, said the watchdog would look at whether there had been any criminal wrongdoing by McSkimming and/or any related non-criminal misconduct.

The investigation, Graham said, had been prompted by a complaint from a member of the public.

Earlier this month, the IPCA confirmed this part of their investigation had been completed, but only released it to a select number of people due to ongoing court proceedings.

Separately, however, the IPCA was also tasked with determining whether there had been misconduct or negligence of duty by any other police officer or employee in the course of responding to the allegations about McSkimming.

At the time, Stuff reported that it was expected former Police Commissioner Andrew Coster and other senior officers would be interviewed as part of the investigation.

Stuff understands several senior police officers received adverse findings during this process, but most have sought legal advice. With the results of the IPCA’s investigation due to be released as early as next week, quite what form those will take remains to be seen amid ongoing background legal arguments.

The McSkimming controversy inevitably raises ghosts of past police scandals, including the rape convictions of Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton; and even concerns about McSkimming’s predecessor, Wally Haumaha, who the IPCA found had acted in an “unprofessional and inappropriate” way, with intimidating behaviour towards three women.

Whether McSkimming joins the list of notorious New Zealand officers who have fallen from grace is unlikely to be known for some time yet.

But in the meantime, other equally important questions are lining up to be answered: Who in the police knew about the allegations? When did they learn of the serious concerns about McSkimming?

Ultimately, the damage to New Zealand police’s reputation from the McSkimming scandal will depend on whether other senior staff are entangled in what has occurred, and how many suffer the same fate as Jevon Murray McSkimming, police recruit wing 163.