Source: Radio New Zealand
RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Police Commissioner Richard Chambers says he believes there was a cover-up in the investigation into complaints about former Deputy Commissioner Jevon McSkimming.
Chambers told Morning Report he was not given a heads up from former Police Commissioner Andrew Coster about the investigation into Jevon McSkimming, and he was shocked when he was told.
He denies there was a systemic failure of the New Zealand police and its processes, but says it was a failure of the former leadership of the police, who were acting in “self-interest”.
“It’s disgraceful. What occurred is not the way we do things in police. It was a total failure by the former senior leadership of New Zealand police and their integrity,” Chambers told Morning Report.
Asked if there had been a cover-up, Chambers said:
“That’s the way that many will interpret it and my personal view is that there was you know a bunch of senior leaders, who have now exited the organisation, who were acting in the self interests of themselves frankly and in particular one individual, so people will interpret the report in their own way but the way I read it.”
“That’s exactly what happened.”
Coster has been placed on leave after a damning report found serious misconduct at the highest levels of police.
Andrew Coster became chief executive of the Social Investment Agency after his tenure as New Zealand’s top cop.
He’s named in a new scathing 135-page IPCA report into Jevon McSkimming, the former Deputy Police Commissioner, who last week pleaded guilty to possessing child sexual exploitation and bestiality material.
The report revealed senior police failed to respond to a number of complaints made against McSkimming.
When they did refer the matter to the IPCA, Coster attempted to speed up the investigation in what was perceived by some as him trying to protect McSkimming’s prospect of becoming the next Commissioner of Police.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
