Source: Radio New Zealand
Disgraced former deputy police commissioner Jevon McSkimming was sentenced to nine months home detention in December after pleading guilty to charges relating to possessing objectionable publications. RNZ / Mark Papalii
A police staffer who was asked to not circulate emails containing allegations about disgraced former Deputy Commissioner Jevon McSkimming “assumed” then Police Commissioner Andrew Coster would brief the Police Minister.
However, the Minister says it wasn’t until almost nearly two years later that he was first informed of the allegations against McSkimming.
Why 36 emails containing allegations about McSkimming were diverted from Mark Mitchell’s office to Coster’s office without the Police Minister seeing them became one of the central questions to come following the scathing report by the Independent Police Conduct Authority in November.
- Do you know more? Email sam.sherwood@rnz.co.nz
Protocol was to forward emails to police commissioner’s office bypassing minister
A protocol had been put in place for police staff in Mitchell’s ministerial office to forward the emails directly to then-Commissioner Andrew Coster’s office, and not share them with Mitchell or his political staff, he said.
RNZ has obtained under the OIA a copy of a handwritten file note by Police’s manager of Ministerial Services Lee Hodgson dated 17 January, 2024.
In the note Hodgson wrote that someone had brought some emails to her attention that they had come across in the minister’s mailbox while clearing a backlog of correspondence.
“They related to anonymous allegations about Jevon.”
Hodgson wrote that the staffer gave her hard copies of the emails. Hodgson said she brought them to the attention of then Director of the Commissioner’s office Maria Rawiri who said the commissioner and other members of the executive had received “similar emails and they were being dealt with together”.
Hodgson was asked to give the hard copies to another staffer who was working with former Deputy Commissioner Tania Kura on them.
“Maria asked me not to circulate them any further as they were unsubstantiated anonymous allegations.”
Hodgson then called her colleague and told her they had been asked to send any further such emails to the commissioner’s office.
‘I felt assured that the allegations were going to be assessed’ – staffer
Assistant Commissioner Tusha Penny said that on 11 November, the file note was typed up with additional detail that Hodgson recalled from memory to create a digital record after Mitchell’s office sought clarification about how such emails had been managed.
Hodgson said Rawiri asked her not to circulate them further in the Minister’s office or within police as they were “unsubstantiated anonymous allegations”.
In the file note, Hodgson said she had also given her manager a “verbal heads up” after telling her colleague to send any further such complaints to her which she would then forward on to the Commissioner’s office.
“I felt assured that the allegations were going to be assessed (and considered by Fixated Threat Assessment Centre) under independent oversight by Deputy Commissioner Tania Kura. I assumed the Commissioner would be verbally briefing the Minister, as is usual with sensitive matters.”
On 12 November, a staffer from Mitchell’s office wrote to Police Commissioner Richard Chambers in relation to Mitchell’s emails.
“It is important that Police can provide this office with some assurances and change their processes accordingly.”
The staffer said Mitchell needed assurance that previous correspondence addressed to him and referred to Police for action had been “actioned appropriately” and that the procedure instated by Coster, and any similar, was limited to just the issue for which it was put in place.
“I understand there may be other practises around where emails on certain topics should be sent. Unless there is a good explanation for it, that should stop. All emails referred to Police by the Minister should go to the same place at Police for assessment and action as appropriate. Any approach taken currently that departs from this should be stopped.
“I also understand that previously feedback has been provided to this office on what has happened in relation to an email referred to Police (actions taken etc), however this practise has over time lapsed and stopped. That needs to be restarted.”
The staffer said employees had been put in “highly uncomfortable positions and that is not fair and should not be allowed to continue”.
“Correspondence referred from the Minister’s office needs to be treated transparently and in the same way, and deserves a genuine assessment and response from Police. I would appreciate having that assurance from you directly.”
Current Police Commissioner not aware Coster had asked for different correspondence protocol
In response, Chambers said he was not aware that Coster had asked for a different process to be put in place to deal with correspondence.
“This is obviously a departure from the well understood and accepted processes for dealing with correspondence relevant to a Minister’s portfolio and the persons and agencies to which they relate. This includes feedback mechanisms.”
Former police commissioner Andrew Coster. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Chambers said Ministerial Services had a “key role” in supporting Mitchell’s office and should be the “single channel for all correspondence relevant to the interface between Police and the Minister’s office”.
“This includes the role of agency private secretaries whose role it is to provide support to the Minister’s office. It is disappointing to learn that staff were under instruction to depart from these systems and processes and I apologise to any staff, either in the Minister’s office or Ministerial Services who were put into this unfortunate situation.”
Chambers had copied in the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director who would discuss to ensure systems, processes and expectations were “well understood and in place”, and that the Minister and Minister’s office received the assurance they sought going forward and in respect of previous correspondence.
In an interview with TVNZ’s Q+A on Sunday after his resignation Coster said the first he heard of the allegation about emails being redirected after the IPCA report was released.
“I had absolutely no knowledge of that whatsoever. I can’t validate whether that was, in fact, a protocol that was in place, but what I can say is there’s no way in the world that agency employed staff in a minister’s office are able to prevent the minister or the minister’s staff from seeing email coming in on the minister’s email address.
“The role of the agency staff is to have emails given to them by the minister’s own staff to prepare responses for the minister through the agency… there’s just no way that police staff in Minister’s office could, could somehow intercept.”
Coster said he had seen a file note that was prepared by police in recent weeks, which said there was a conversation between the head of ministerial services – who is not in the minister’s office – and the director of Coster’s office about emails that came through in late 2023 and early 2024.
“It was ‘there are these emails. What do I do with them?’… the file note says the direction was send them through to Deputy Commissioner Tania Kura, who was overseeing the process.”
Coster did not know why the “retrospective note” was created.
“I imagine there will have been some concern across more than one Minister’s office about … where did all these emails go, and who saw them and and I assume that this paperwork was created in response to those conversations.”
Chief operating officer Andrea Conlan earlier said police could confirm a handwritten file note was made at the time of a discussion with the director of the office of the former commissioner on 17 January, 2024, regarding the processing of emails to the minister’s office.
Ministerial Services outlines how emails were handled
The manager of Ministerial Services was asked to speak with the minister’s office staff on 11 November, 2025, to outline how the emails sent to the office were handled.
“The handwritten file note was typed up by the manager after that conversation (and some detail added from memory). This was to make a digital record in parallel with the email the manager was asked to provide the minister’s office confirming the earlier conversation (and the process followed) in writing.
“Nobody asked for the file note to be prepared, but a confirmation email was requested by the minister’s office following the conversation on the morning of 11 November.
“Following the 17 January, 2024 conversation, at the request of the director of the office of the (former) commissioner, the manager of Ministerial Services provided hard copies of the emails to the (former) commissioner’s office.”
The manager also spoke to the staff member in the minister’s office to convey the director’s instruction.
“This was not included in the file note, but these actions corroborate what was documented in the manager’s original handwritten file note.”
Mitchell previously defended the police staff in his ministerial office, saying they were put in an “awful situation” by the protocol, which he was unaware of.
Following Coster’s interview, Mitchell said Coster’s claim that he was not aware about the system instituted to redirect emails was “unfathomable”.
“The protocol around the emails has been repeatedly verified by several police employees, who were given the instruction by Coster’s office.
“It came from his office and most senior direct reports, and as he already accepts, as commissioner, all things ultimately fell to his responsibility.”
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
