Cop charged over alleged cover-up

A police officer is facing serious criminal charges and has been suspended from duty after allegedly trying to cover up a firearms crime by his partner.

The officer, a dog handler, and his partner live on a rural property, and it is understood the firearms incident in January followed an "incensed" meeting between the couple and their council over a resource consent for the property.

Police confirmed on Friday that the officer, who has name suppression, had been suspended from duty but would not say whether he was on full pay, or how long he had been a sworn officer.

The officer appeared in court 10 days ago facing three charges: wilfully attempting to defeat the course of justice (by allegedly covering up evidence against his partner, who he knew had unlawfully carried a firearm); being an accessory to an aggravated assault; and being an accessory to unlawful carrying of a firearm. He is due in court again this month.

The charge of attempting to defeat the course of justice carries a maximum sentence of seven years in jail.

A handful of police officers have been convicted on similar charges in the past five years. Last year two Auckland police officers, constables Reuben James Harris and Benson Lyle Murphy, were convicted and given home detention after covering up for a colleague who allegedly bashed a man to death in their patrol car in 2004.

Former Rotorua CIB head John Dewar was convicted in 2007 after covering for three colleagues in the 1990s, when Louise Nicholas said she had been raped by them.

Dewar served 19 months of his four-and-a-half year sentence, and was released on parole in May.