former Assistant Commissioner Paul Basham<\/a>.<\/p>\nBasham retired in September, two months after Kura.<\/p>\n
RNZ approached Basham for comment following his resignation, on what connection it had with the pending IPCA report.<\/p>\n
A police spokesperson messaged RNZ and said Basham wanted to pass on his retirement was \u201cunrelated to anything other than it was the right time for him and his family. Entirely personal decision\u201d.<\/p>\n
The IPCA\u2019s report said the terms of reference for Operation Herb, which Basham was \u201cdirectly responsible for\u201d, were \u201cin no way consistent with police adult sexual assault policy and procedures\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was unreasonably preoccupied with ensuring Deputy Commissioner McSkimming was not being unfairly disadvantaged in the forthcoming appointments process for the new Commissioner, for which he knew Deputy Commissioner McSkimming would be an applicant.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Superintendent]()
Superintendent Paul Basham and Dunedin Hospital emergency department head Dr Richard Stephenson brief reporters. Photo \/ RNZ<\/p>\n
The IPCA said there were several factors that mitigated Basham\u2019s failings.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had only come into the role of Assistant Commissioner of Investigations in April 2024, with limited handover and in the context of the rollout of new gang laws and other high-priority matters. As he puts it, his \u2018head was spinning\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has acknowledged that if presented with the same circumstances again, he would do things differently, including being \u2018unequivocal about the primacy of alignment to ASA policy in the terms of reference\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
From 2017 to 2024 Basham was the Southern District Commander.<\/p>\n
RNZ obtained a copy of an email sent by Basham to Chambers on September 15 under the OIA.<\/p>\n
Basham said that week marked 40 years in police.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has always been my intention to review my tenure in police on this anniversary and, having reached the 40-year anniversary or milestone, I have decided to retire from police,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have had an incredibly rewarding career and intend to retire positively from police \u2013 I wish you well as you lead our amazing people who are the New Zealand Police.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next paragraph was redacted, but the email ended with Basham asking for Chambers\u2019 permission to \u201csend a short, positive, message\u201d to several teams about his decision.<\/p>\n
About two hours later, Basham wrote to some of his colleagues about his departure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remain passionate about the difference police make for people and communities in Aotearoa NZ, the progress we have made as an agency to understand what it means & and why it is important \u2013 to have \u2018the trust and confidence of all\u2019, but the time is right for me to retire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officer B<\/p>\n
RNZ understands Officer B is Detective Superintendent Chris Page. Page is still working in the police.<\/p>\n
The IPCA said Page\u2019s failings were \u201cconsiderable\u201d.<\/p>\n
The authority said Kura sought his advice on the best way to make the email harassment stop, and he recommended a district-led criminal investigation into Ms Z\u2019s conduct.<\/p>\n
He also failed to act on recommendations to consider investigating the allegations contained in the emails and to refer the matter to NIU and the IPCA.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Acting Assistant Commissioner of Investigations and the officer overseeing the prosecution of Ms Z, Officer B was in a position to ensure there were two parallel but independent investigations \u2013 one into harassment by Ms Z and one into complaints made against Deputy Commissioner McSkimming.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Former]()
Former Assistant Commissioner Paul Basham. Photo \/ RNZ, Samuel Rillstone<\/p>\n
The IPCA said it was \u201cdriven to the inescapable conclusion that Officer B had no interest in exploring whether there was any truth to the allegations\u201d.<\/p>\n
The IPCA also criticised Page for inserting into the summary of facts in relation to Ms Z\u2019s prosecution the word \u201cfalse\u201d in respect of her allegations, despite knowing they had not been investigated.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven Officer B\u2019s role as the Detective Superintendent overseeing that investigation, we find it deeply concerning that he did not read the legal opinion or otherwise turn his mind to whether both the evidential and public interest tests had been met before sanctioning the decision to proceed with charging Ms Z.\u201d<\/p>\n
The IPCA said Page\u2019s mindset from the outside of his involvement was \u201cthat Deputy Commissioner McSkimming was the only victim, and that there was nothing else to investigate\u201d.<\/p>\n
Deputy Commissioner PLC<\/p>\n
RNZ understands Deputy Commissioner PLC is former Deputy Commissioner of People, Leadership and Culture, Chris de Wattignar, who now works as the head of aviation security at the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).<\/p>\n
The IPCA said de Wattignar had an obligation to exercise independent judgment and take any necessary action to ensure senior officers were acting in an appropriate way.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite his Director of Integrity and Conduct raising her concerns with him in the clearest language, he clearly failed to fulfil that obligation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The IPCA acknowledged his responsibility was \u201cto a degree mitigated\u201d by the fact he sought advice from Coster.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis failing lies in the fact that he simply relied upon Commissioner Coster\u2019s and Deputy Commissioner Kura\u2019s assurances without further inquiry of his own, despite the continued expressions of concern from Officer M.\u201d<\/p>\n
De Wattignar\u2019s perception that once he became aware of concerns he lacked the necessary authority was proof of the \u201cinadequate status and independence of Police Integrity and Conduct\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"Detective]()
Detective Superintendent Chris Page. Photo \/ RNZ, Brad White<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we do not doubt there was significantly more he could have done, the status of Integrity and Conduct within Police no doubt needs reframing.\u201d<\/p>\n
A CAA spokesperson said in a statement to RNZ the matters discussed in the IPCA\u2019s report \u201crelate to events that occurred during Chris de Wattignar\u2019s previous employment with New Zealand Police\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs this was a police matter and is now the subject of extensive public reporting and oversight, it would not be appropriate for the Civil Aviation Authority or for Chris in his current role to comment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The CAA had no involvement in the police investigation or the IPCA\u2019s findings, the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are focused on our statutory responsibilities for aviation safety and security, and we continue to support our people to uphold the highest standards of professionalism and integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Deputy Police Commissioner Tania Kura The IPCA said Kura failed to make \u201csufficiently robust\u201d inquiries in relation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1975,30271,1874,4729,78,14566,4277,5983,11518,111,43,139,69,1560,12860,1238,15768,1361,223],"class_list":{"0":"post-131144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-at","9":"tag-figures","10":"tag-found","11":"tag-highest","12":"tag-in","13":"tag-ipca","14":"tag-key","15":"tag-levels","16":"tag-misconduct","17":"tag-new-zealand","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-newzealand","20":"tag-nz","21":"tag-report","22":"tag-revealed","23":"tag-serious","24":"tag-sherwood","25":"tag-that","26":"tag-the"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}