Police minister's staff redirected 36 emails from McSkimming complainant
Wednesday, 12 November 2025
Police Minister Mark Mitchell said he was “extremely disappointed” that 36 emails his office received from a woman complaining about McSkimming were diverted to police HQ.
McSkimming, a former police deputy commissioner who last week pleaded guilty to three charges of possessing child sexual exploitation and bestiality material, was revealed by the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA), after a suppression order lifted on Tuesday evening, to have engaged in an affair with a young woman, who subsequently repeatedly complained to police.
But McSkimming’s colleagues in the police executive, including then-police commissioner Andrew Coster, who was aware of the affair, treated the complaints as harassment and had the woman arrested and prosecuted under the Harmful Digital Communications Act. The charge was later dropped.
Mitchell has since confirmed his office received 36 emails from the woman complaining of McSkimming, however he had “recently discovered” that Coster directed police employees in the minister’s office to refer the emails to the commissioner’s office.
The staff, who were police employees posted to Mitchell’s office, were told “not to share or discuss them [the emails] with anyone else in the office”.
“That included me and my political staff. I am extremely disappointed that those emails were not raised with us at the direction of the then-Police Commissioner,” Mitchell said.
“The staff seconded to my office do an outstanding job and this is not a reflection on them. This process was deliberately circumvented in a similar way to some of the issues highlighted in the IPCA report.”
The diversion of these emails was evidenced by an email provided by the minister’s office. In the email to a staffer of Mitchell’s, sent on Tuesday morning, a police ministerial services manager whose name was redacted confirmed the process their department was asked to follow.
“We were asked to treat the correspondence in confidence and not circulate to it [sic] others in the minister’s office or police generally,” the email read.
The woman’s emails were referred to the director of Coster’s office, who was understood to be working with Deputy Commissioner Tania Kura to manage the correspondence. Kura has since left police.
Mitchell said he was informed of an IPCA investigation into McSkimming on November 6, 2024, by then-outgoing commissioner Coster.
“I immediately initiated a meeting with the Public Service Commission and the Solicitor-General to bring forward my concerns,” he said. “Those are the actions I would have taken had I been briefed on the emails.”
Coster, now chief executive of the Social Investment Agency, has agreed to take leave while the Public Service Commission undertakes an employment investigation.
While the IPCA found no collusion within the police executive, Collins said the report revealed “a leadership team that seemed more interested in protecting one of their own”, and suggested the IPCA findings looked like corruption.