Police officer who looked at images of underage girls argues it wasn't as serious as McSkimming

The behaviour of a police officer who accessed child sexual abuse material on his work phone on duty is much less serious than the Jevon McSkimming case, his lawyer says.

Senior Sergeant Matthew Rogers appeared in the Manukau District Court today, making a bid for a discharge without conviction relating to one representative charge of accessing an objectionable publication.

Rogers’ lawyer Todd Simmonds, KC, told the court that former Deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming had “much more serious offending” which involved about 3000 images, “the bulk of them” of bestiality.

Rogers on the other hand, Simmonds said, had searched and clicked on, but not downloaded, nine objectionable images of underage girls.

Judge Clare Bennett interrupted the hearing to say that she needed more information on what kind of future employment Rogers, who spent nearly 40 years in the police, would be seeking.

That would help her decide whether a conviction would affect his future employment prospects, the judge said.

The hearing was adjourned to an undecided future date for Simmonds to gather that information.

According to the summary, Rogers joined the force in 1986, and between August 2023 and October 2025 worked at the Tāmaki Makaurau District Command Centre.

He would use his police-issue devices sometimes while on duty, to search sexualised terms online, including “reddit milf kneeling” and “reddit anature [sic] teen undress”.

The searches turned up a “high number” of legal pornographic images, but Rogers also clicked on and enlarged images of naked girls that appeared to be aged 14 to 17.

Other searches between 2023 and 2025 included “nip slip drunk”, “nude teen” and “tiny teen nude”, which resulted in some images of naked girls appearing to be 14-17.

Another search, “reddit teen girl choked nude”, showed a naked underaged girl “restrained” with a collar, while “drenk teen toopless” showed two naked girls with their arms around each other.

Rogers was first spoken to about this in October 2025 during a police search of his home, where he acknowledged using his work devices for personal searches.

A review found that nine images shown in the searches, and clicked on, were objectionable.

‘Teen’ vs ‘bestiality’

Simmonds said the Crown had made submissions using the case of McSkimming as an example for how to deal with Rogers.

McSkimming admitted three representative charges of possessing objectionable publications, namely child sexual exploitation and bestiality material, and was sentenced to nine months’ home detention in December.

Simmonds said while he wasn’t asking the judge to ignore that case, it was “much more serious” both in scale and the nature of the images.

At the time, McSkimming was “no less” than one of two deputy commissioners to the police, Simmonds continued, and “one peg down” from the top of the organisation.

Judge Bennett said she didn’t need persuading, and that Rogers’ offending wasn’t “anywhere near” the case of McSkimming.

Six out of the nine photos, Simmonds accepted, Rogers had searched for objectionable content, which showed some premeditation.

But with the other three, he said, the search terms did not suggest Rogers was looking for illegal content.

Judge Bennett asked what Simmonds thought of the Crown submissions that the term ‘teen’ meant 13 to 18-year-olds.

Simmonds said Rogers himself acknowledged that searching those terms was wrong but again pointed out that six of the nine searches included that word.

Simmonds was also asking the judge to consider his client’s early guilty plea, previous good character and remorse.

He also said there was “no need” to place Rogers on the Child Sex Offender Register, and the judge agreed.

Crown lawyer Kristy Li, on behalf of the police, said she wanted to hear from the defence on what Rogers was looking at in terms of future employment before she made her arguments.

Simmonds said he hadn’t yet discussed what jobs his client would be looking for, as they were waiting for the legal process to conclude.

He was to make further submissions on that topic before the next hearing, the court heard.

A ‘rapid review’

In June police announced three constabulary staff were being charged after a rapid internal review of staff internet use in the wake of the Jevon McSkimming scandal.

One of the three charged in June, pleaded guilty to one representative charge of possessing an objectionable publication in Manukau District Court two months ago.

Simmonds, also acting for the man, said his client was probably going to apply for permanent name suppression and discharge without conviction at a November hearing.

The third officer appeared in the Wellington District Court and also has interim suppression.

Police in court

Also in Manukau District Court last month, a former police officer was found guilty of 14 charges relating to the assaults of three women while in the force, as well as blackmail, indecent assault and strangulation.

Another Auckland police officer pleaded guilty to making and possessing intimate recordings of three women that same month.

And Auckland police officer Amanuel Molla was stood down after being charged with doing an indecent act on a child under 12.

Ella Scott-Fleming has been a journalist for three years and previously worked at the Otago Daily Times, Gore Ensign and Metro Magazine. She has an interest in court and general reporting. She’s currently based in Auckland covering justice related stories.