Former Deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii
Warning - this story contains details which may offend some readers.
Court documents reveal the extent of former Deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming's viewing of objectionable material on his work devices, clicking on about 160 images.
He also told a colleague that over the years he had needed different types of pornography to "make him feel anything, and it just kept escalating".
The material included computer animated bestiality material and child sexual abuse material.
McSkimming pleaded guilty on Thursday to possessing child sexual exploitation and bestiality material.
The summary of facts, released to RNZ, says as well as being deputy commissioner of police he was appointed chief security officer for police in March 2021, which meant he was responsible for and accountable for "protective security policies and implementation is aligned with police objectives, risk, and requirements".
He was also a member of the Security and Privacy Reference Group (SPRG) throughout the period, and had knowledge of information security controls that applied to the use of the internet.
In late 2020, police made the decision that six-monthly internet usage monitoring reports, supplied to the senior leadership team, would cease. McSkimming would have been aware of this.
In December 2024, internet browsing activity of concern was noticed - McSkimming's work devices were being used to conduct Google searches of a sexual nature, including using explicit terms that could return objectionable publications.
McSkimming performed Google searches on his police devices, primarily his work cellphone, to access pornographic and objectionable publications.
The summary said that when an internet search was made on a device connected to the police system, the activity was logged. Alerts, seen only by the user, were generated if an attempt was made to visit a prohibited website.
The system did not typically generate an alert if a search included prohibited items without the user then accessing the website which the search engine returned.
The earliest recorded search took place on 1 July, 2020, and the last recorded search was on 18 December, 2024.
There were a total of 5354 Google searches, of which 1922 were adult/pornographic. Of these, 64 were intended to return objectionable images, while 368 of the searches were "highly likely" to return objectionable images.
The searches included AI material, including references to nude toddlers and nude nazi girl. Other words typed included 'slave', 'abuse' and 'extreme'.
Police determined that of all his searches on his work devices, 1 percent were intended to return objectionable images while 7 percent would "highly likely return objectionable images".
"As an average, 7 percent of the defendant's internet searches, during the work hours of 8am to 4pm, were either intended to return or highly likely to return objectionable content, and the quantity is reasonably consistent over each day across the whole four-and-a-half years assessed."
Former Deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming. Photo: Getty Images
Across the 432 searches, 2945 objectionable images were returned through Google searches to be viewed by McSkimming.
Of those searches, police selected 14 objectionable search periods to analyse. Of the sessions analysed, seven contained objectionable material. The seven sessions returned 880 objectionable images. Of the 880, 812 images involved adult bestiality and 68 images child sexual exploitation material.
The remaining 2065 images were the subject of the general representative charge capturing the remaining objectionable images - about 37 percent child sexual exploitation and 63 percent bestiality.
After McSkimming sent his search term on Google, he would be presented with a series of smaller images, generally referred to as thumbnails. He would then be able to scroll through the images and "potentially stop, linger on an image he wished to view".
Police conducted searches using phrases McSkimming had. On one Google said "caution - child abuse content is illegal and harmful".
McSkimming had clicked or tapped 48 of the 880 objectionable images that were analysed. Police estimated McSkimming had clicked on about 160 of the 2945 images.
McSkimming made no comment to police.
When he was made aware of the police internet investigation in March 2025, he contacted a colleague and admitted to them police had found porn on his laptop.
"He said that he had found a way around the normal police systems to look at porn, and that he grew up in a house where pornography was normal."
He also told another colleague that over the years he had needed different types of pornography to "make him feel anything, and it just kept escalating".
Police Minister Mark Mitchell said he couldn't comment on specific matters in relation to a case waiting for sentencing.
"What I will say is that I am proud to support our thousands of sworn and non-sworn staff who perform acts of kindness, courage and service every day. Individuals who do not uphold the values or display the integrity required to be a member of the NZ Police should be dealt with appropriately."
Sexual violence help
- NZ Police.
- Victim Support 0800 842 846.
- Rape Crisis: 0800 88 33 00.
- Rape Prevention Education.
- Empowerment Trust.
- HELP (Auckland): 09 623 1700, (Wellington): 04 801 6655.
- Safe to talk: 0800 044 334.
- Tautoko Tāne Male Survivors Aotearoa.
- Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) 022 344 0496.
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