New Zealand’s former deputy police commissioner yesterday lost the right to anonymity after he was charged with possessing child sexual exploitation and bestiality material.
Jevon McSkimming was arrested in June and charged with eight counts of possessing objectionable material, but the courts had prevented media from reporting his name or other details of the case.
Appearing in Wellington District Court yesterday, McSkimming opted not to seek an extension of the suppression order.
Photo: AFP
His lawyer, Letizea Ord, told Judge Tim Black “there is not a further application in respect of name suppression. It’s accepted that it can lapse today.”
He had yet to enter a plea.
Asked as he left court if he had a message for the public, McSkimming said: “No.”
McSkimming was suspended on full pay in December last year when an investigation into his conduct was launched.
Details of those allegations cannot be reported.
He was on leave for six months before his resignation in May.
Black remanded McSkimming on bail and he is to reappear before the court in November.
New Zealand Police Commissioner Richard Chambers has refused to speak to the media, other than a statement in May acknowledging McSkimming’s resignation.
Chambers beat McSkimming to win the police commissioner role in November last year. A month later, McSkimming was put on leave.
In an e-mail last month to police staff, reported by Radio New Zealand, Chambers said he was aware people felt “angry and feel let down.”
“I feel the same,” Chambers said.
New Zealand Minister of Police Mark Mitchell has also declined to comment on the case.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has fired his national police chief, who gained attention for leading the separate arrests of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte on orders of the International Criminal Court and televangelist Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, who is on the FBI’s most-wanted list for alleged child sex trafficking. Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin did not cite a reason for the removal of General Nicolas Torre as head of the 232,000-member national police force, a position he was appointed to by Marcos in May and which he would have held until 2027. He was replaced by another senior police general, Jose
STILL AFLOAT: Satellite images show that a Chinese ship damaged in a collision earlier this month was under repair on Hainan, but Beijing has not commented on the incident Australia, Canada and the Philippines on Wednesday deployed three warships and aircraft for drills against simulated aerial threats off a disputed South China Sea shoal where Chinese forces have used risky maneuvers to try to drive away Manila’s aircraft and ships. The Philippine military said the naval drills east of Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) were concluded safely, and it did not mention any encounter with China’s coast guard, navy or suspected militia ships, which have been closely guarding the uninhabited fishing atoll off northwestern Philippines for years. Chinese officials did not immediately issue any comment on the naval drills, but they
POWER CONFLICT: The US president threatened to deploy National Guards in Baltimore. US media reports said he is also planning to station troops in Chicago US President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to deploy National Guard troops to yet another Democratic stronghold, the Maryland city of Baltimore, as he seeks to expand his crackdown on crime and immigration. The Republican’s latest online rant about an “out of control, crime-ridden” city comes as Democratic state leaders — including Maryland Governor Wes Moore — line up to berate Trump on a high-profile political stage. Trump this month deployed the National Guard to the streets of Washington, in a widely criticized show of force the president said amounts to a federal takeover of US capital policing. The Guard began carrying
Ukrainian drone attacks overnight on several Russian power and energy facilities forced capacity reduction at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant and set a fuel export terminal in Ust-Luga on fire, Russian officials said yesterday. A drone attack on the Kursk nuclear plant, not far from the border with Ukraine, damaged an auxiliary transformer and led to 50 percent reduction in the operating capacity at unit three of the plant, the plant’s press service said. There were no injuries and a fire sparked by the attack was promptly extinguished, the plant said. Radiation levels at the site and in the surrounding