Source: Radio New Zealand
Former Deputy Commissioner Jevon McSkimming RNZ / Mark Papalii
Police officers have been spat at and called paedophiles, child abusers and kiddie fiddlers since Jevon McSkimming’s offending became public, their union says.
The Police Association says officers are tired in the wake of the disgraced former Deputy Commissioner’s case as its president detailed the abuse they’ve had hurled at them.
Steve Watt says officers now face a long process to regain trust from the public “piece by piece”.
McSkimming pleaded guilty in November to three representative charges of having objectionable publications of child sexual exploitation and bestiality.
He was sentenced to nine months’ home detention on Wednesday.
The judge began with a starting point at sentencing on Wednesday of three years’ jail.
Reductions were given for McSkimming’s early guilty plea, rehabilitation efforts, prior good character and remorse and steps taken to prevent reoffending.
Police Association president Steve Watt RNZ/ Phil Pennington
His offending included 2945 images – about 1900 searches for material of a sexual nature, 432 of which were intended or highly likely to return objectionable material.
Police Association president Steve Watt told Morning Report the case had been tiring for officers.
“They’ve been spat at, we had one member reported walking past the construction site where they yelled out to him calling him Jevon and asking him if he’d interfered with animals recently. You know, it’s not right and it’s not fair on our members,” he said.
“And the reality is that our members are having to pick up that public reassurance piece by piece by getting out there, doing what they do best and responding to crimes, dealing with victims, you know, dealing with assault files.
“But it’s going to be a long process in order to gain that trust and confidence back from the public,” Watt said.
More scrutiny needed on jail time for ex-cops
He said the union realised the courts would face difficulty sending a former top police officer to jail for fear of violence.
“Sometimes the depravity of certain situations, that needs to be overlooked,” he said.
“I think there are a number of issues that obviously the court have to take into consideration, and sometimes those are perhaps overlooked because of the position that’s being held, and that just needs to be looked at a bit more closely.”
Watt said there would also be consequences from the Independent Police Conduct Authority’s scathing findings into how police, at the highest levels, mishandled a complaint against McSkimming.
“It’s going to have some pretty big ramifications for our members, particularly in the disciplinary and employment space,” he said.
“We’re still working through what those ramifications are going to look like and come the new year, we’re going to be working pretty closely with police just to gain a better understanding of it and work with police on the processes that are going to be put in place.”
The Police Association said officers also felt let down by [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/580740/andrew-coster-breaks-silence-after-resigning-from-social-investment-agency
a recent interview with former Commissioner Andrew Coster].
“Look, it was a fairly compelling interview, but the reality is it didn’t take full responsibility really for the issues,” Watt said.
“And that was disappointing for members. They wanted to see, an open, full and frank ‘this was my fault’, and that was disappointing.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
