Beating the system: Inside the flawed vetting of Jevon McSkimming

Friday, 14 November 2025

Former top cop Jevon McSkimming pleaded guilty to charges of possessing child exploitation and bestiality material.

The vetting process to become deputy commissioner uncovered that disgraced cop Jevon McSkimming had been accused of assault, unlawful arrest and unreasonable treatment in the 1990s and early 2000s.

The complaints were either not upheld, withdrawn or resulted in no disciplinary action and training.

McSkimming was also caught using his phone while driving in 2015, which resulted in a fine and demerit points. Three years later a similar complaint was made, and he received a written warning. But complaints were not seen to be an issue because they are a “common, but regrettable” accompaniment to police work.

McSkimming’s history was uncovered as part of the Public Service Commission’s review of its appointment processes - which included a fake media interview with broadcaster Kim Hill as part of a psych test.

The review was ordered by commissioner Sir Brian Roche in December last year after finding out the seriousness of the issues surrounding McSkimming, who was found to have child sexual exploitation and bestiality images on his police-issued laptop.

“This has been a wake-up call,“ said Roche.

This follows the police’s independent watchdog releasing its report into the handling of serious complaints made against now disgraced top cop Jevon McSkimming, that had found there were “serious failings” by “very senior officers”.

He has called McSkimming a “devious liar” who manipulated and curated a narrative which made “highly, highly unlikely, if not impossible” for the commission to uncover his actions.

Miriam Dean KC was tasked with assessing whether the checks conducted during the appointment process in 2023 when McSkimming was appointed were thorough and appropriate and to identify any improvements that could be made.

It found standard procedures were followed but missed a chance to probe a red flag about his personal life.

A referee told the commission that McSkimming had a “strange relationship with a woman that was almost stalking him”.

“She was not well. She got out of hand,” the referee said.

When McSkimming was asked about the relationship, he was “very calm” and did not seem “bothered at all” by the matter.

Dean said the commission should have asked more questions about that relationship, including whether the woman was a police employee, whether there had been a power imbalance, and what McSkimming meant when he later described the relationship as having “gone a bit feral”.

Though Dean said further probing was unlikely to have changed the outcome and agreed with the deputy public service commissioner Heather Baggott, who ran the recommendation process that: “There comes a point when the Commission has to trust in other parties’ processes … we can’t hear rumours and run our own investigations into them. It’s not our role and it’s not appropriate.”

McSkimming was regarded as a “highly credible candidate” and had disclosed the relationship during a top-level security-clearance process which gave the PSC confidence about his suitability because those checks are “rigorous and extreme”.

At the time, the IPCA told the commission it had “no complaints or concerns” about him.

The panel which interviewed him included former police commissioner Andrew Coster who has come under scrutiny for his role in not following proper processes for complaints made about McSkimming and two Public Service Deputies.

The panel noted McSkimming was “very impressive, thoughtful, with a strategic mind, [and that he] came across as an authentic leader”.

Police, at the request of the commission, also searched its legal databases to see whether there were “any matters that would raise questions regarding the ‘fit and proper’ test”, including whether were any matters “sitting outside the system”.

Senior team members confirmed there was not.

However, the Independent Police Conduct Authority has since found that at the time of McSkimming’s appointment he had been accused of sex crimes which were not acted upon appropriately and followed up by senior police.

The review also uncovered that McSkimming used to be involved in a luxury car business but Covid had wiped out the market so the company had been wound down.

The psychometric assessment, conducted by PsychforLeaders, tested his leadership priorities and a mock interview with Hill to test his media skills. He was deemed to have performed well in the interview.

“Convincingly so”, the appointments manager told Dean. It was not uncommon for Hill to interview public sector appointments as part of the process. Hill did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.

Dean said there were “some remarkable similarities“ with the 2018 Scholtens Inquiry into the appointment of then-Deputy Commissioner Wally Haumaha following concerns raised by survivors advocate Louise Nicholas, who took issue with his appointment given comments he had made defending the police officers she accused of rape in 2004.

Dean said both cases showed the difficulty of uncovering “unknown unknowns” before public appointments.

As a result of the review, the public service commission has introduced changes to statutory appointments it makes, including device history checks, formal disclosure statements and stronger interview questions.

“I am confident that had these measures been in place earlier – alongside stronger disclosure controls within Police – it is more likely we would have identified concerns casting doubt on Mr McSkimming’s suitability for the role,” said Roche.