Staffer put in ‘awful position’ over blocking McSkimming emails - Minister

Thursday, 13 November 2025

Mark Mitchell says the Police Commissioner’s office put a protocol in place to send the correspondence to police HQ and not to let him or his staff see it. “I've never heard of a protocol like that,” he says.

The staffer who withheld emails containing allegations against Jevon McSkimming from Police Minister Mark Mitchell and sent them instead to the Police Commissioner’s office was “put in an awful situation”, the minister says.

Mitchell said on Wednesday more than 30 emails regarding allegations about former deputy commissioner McSkimming were sent to his office. But they never got to him.

“There was a protocol put in place by the commissioner's office whereby any correspondence that was was received into the ministerial office was sent straight to police national headquarters, with instructions that neither myself nor my political staff were to see it,” Mitchell said.

“It's atrocious behaviour.”

Tuesday’s report from the police watchdog IPCA found major police failings concerning the handling of sexual accusations made against former deputy commissioner McSkimming.

Anonymous emails regarding allegations against McSkimming were sent to a number of police officials including then-Commissioner Andrew Coster, politicians - including Mitchell and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon - the IPCA and media between late December 2023 and January 2024.

“The content of the emails was often graphic. A recurring theme was that Deputy Commissioner McSkimming is a sexual predator who targets young females,” the IPCA report stated.

The IPCA report also said that once police's integrity unit did investigate claims made by the woman in late 2024, investigators determined “insufficient evidence to establish the offences to the criminal standard of beyond reasonable doubt, so no prosecution was commenced”.

Mitchell said one of his police parliamentary private secretaries in his office, who handles correspondence and is employed by police, “saw the emails, but the protocol was put in place”. He had spoken to her and wanted to make clear - “she is quite simply, an outstanding member of my team”.

“I love having her on my team. She was put in an awful situation when she was told that all those emails were to be sent straight to the commissioner's office.

“And when you think about it from her perspective, she probably thought that was a good thing because the commissioner was getting visibility.”

Mitchell said they were changing protocols and there would be “more conversations” around any direction between police and police staffers in his office.

“They can be put in a very difficult situation, as you've seen with a police commissioner's office that put a protocol in place that we all know now is completely inappropriate.

“It meant that I couldn't have visibility on what was actually pretty important.”

Asked if any of the content of the emails had been raised with him, Mitchell said, “the protocol that was put in place was that she wasn't to show or raise those emails with me, the political staff, and that was the protocol”.

He said he was going to look at whether there should be changes to ensure content of that type was raised with ministers.

“I've never heard of a protocol like that been put in place before, but when you look at the IPCA findings in the report, that's completely consistent with the behaviour that we've seen exhibited in terms of subverting processes change, ignoring processes, putting in new protocols and processes that weren't there before.

“We can all see that it was with the with the same object in mind, and that was, quite simply, to protect Jevon McSkimming.”

On Thursday, Mitchell said his office had gone back to police to be “very clear” that protocol was to be changed, and was not aware of any other situations where the commissioner’s office had directed staff in his office.

Mitchell said he would have wanted to see those emails. “And had I seen them, then I would have acted on them immediately.”

Luxon confirmed his office had received the emails. It appeared there were about 10 in which he was also a recipient. “Lots of people received those emails, many of you here did as well, as well as the police and the IPCA.

“As you saw in the report, the IPCA, I think [on] January 4 was in contact with the complainant and the sender.”

Luxon said their normal process was to refer to police if they had not also received those exchanges. In this case, the police and the IPCA had also received them.

Coster has declined to comment while an employment investigation is under way. A statement sent to The Post previously said: “As has been publicly noted by Ministers, this is now an employment conversation between the Public Service Commissioner and Andrew Coster. He will not be responding to media ahead of that process.”