Jared Savage: Herald's investigative journalist discusses material in Jevon McSkimming case

A legal battle has swayed in media's favour - now allowed to report child sex exploitation and bestiality imagery were allegedly discovered on work devices of former Police Deputy Commissioner, Jevon McSkimming. 

They were allegedly found while he was under a separate criminal investigation, the details of which can't be legally reported. 

He resigned suddenly in May after being suspended on full pay since December.  

The Herald's Jared Savage told Ryan Bridge details had to be kept secret after McSkimming's lawyer filed an urgent application in the High Court. 

He says media organisations banded together to successfully challenge the injunction stopping reporting on the nature of the material. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A Gevin mcskimming update for you. We can now reveal
the nature of the objectionable material that was allegedly found
on the work devices of the former police deputy commissioner.
They were images of child sex, exploitation and beast reality.
Jared Savage is The Herald's investigative reporter. He's with us now, Hi, Jared?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Gooday, Ryan?

Speaker 1 (00:21):
So why can we only now reveal the nature of
this material.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah, it's been quite drawn out. Let's see. Jem mcskimming
resigned quite suddenly in May. It didn't take long for
reporters to start writing stories saying that there'd been pornographic
material allegedly found on his work devices, and then that
led into potentially objectionable material found on those work devices. Now,

(00:49):
as soon as we started getting quite close and on
those allegations, there was an injunction from the High Court
slap down on us by mc skimming's lawyer, Linda Clark,
and that led to ME, rm Z and stuff websites
sort of banding together to sort of to fight this injunction,

(01:12):
which was a non publication order which was stopping us
from reporting the exact nature of the alleged objectional material
found on Mick Skimming's.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Devices, Jared, how was the content actually discovered?

Speaker 2 (01:29):
So? Mc skimming, who was the Deputy Police Commissioner, He
had been suspended since late last year in December under
criminal investigation for a separate matter which we can't talk
about for legal reasons. But as part of that inquiry,
they've obviously gone through his work devices as part of

(01:49):
that investigation and on there have found this alleged objectional
material that has led to a separate investigation. And then
once sort of he was confronted with the alleged existence
of this material, he resigned shortly afterwards in May. So

(02:09):
that's how it's kind of spun out of a different inquiry.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Right, so May he resigned at that time. What was
said about the reason for that resignation.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
So the Police Minister Mark Mitchell came out and basically
said there was some very serious allegations that had been
made against mc skimming. He didn't specify any any sort
of details for that reason, other than to say, look,
if he hadn't resigned, we would have we would have
sacked him. Basically, it was what it was that that

(02:45):
was the sort of the serious that the seriousness level.
That's what that's what Mitchell put it at. But both
Mark Mitchell and the police missioner, which Chambers wouldn't comment
at all about, you know the actual reason why, and
it's it's you know, it's been media reporting that's led
us to this point today where we can say it's

(03:05):
because child seeks exploitation and beast dality material were allegedly
found on mix Skimming's work devices and that's what led
to his resignation.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Also led to police reviewing their internal IT systems as
a result of what was found. What did they find?

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah, So the day of the same day that Mixing
Mix Skimming resigned, Richard Chambers came out and said, look,
we're going to audit. We're going to audit a review
all our IT systems. It came back to say it's
pretty much fit for purpose. However, there were some weaknesses
there which they are looking to shore up. It seems

(03:47):
like there hadn't been sort of regular auditing of police
staff data and Internet usage on their devices. So that's
that had sort of been in place but had been
halted about four five years ago. And Chambers sort has
come back and said, look, the first thing we're going
to do is reinstate those random audits, so keep a

(04:08):
closer eye on what staff may or may not be
looking at on their devices.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
All right, Jared, thank you for that update. That's Jared Savage,
the Herald's investigative reporter, with an update there on Jevin
mcskimming for more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive listen live
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