The soldier, whose name is still suppressed, was sentenced to military detention for attempted espionage.
The soldier, whose name is still suppressed, was sentenced to military detention for attempted espionage.
The New Zealand Defence Force wants to hear “the clang of the prison gates” for a soldier who tried to give restricted military information to someone he thought was a foreign agent.
The soldier, who has ongoing name suppression, was sentenced to two years of military detention at Burnham MilitaryCamp after a court martial this year.
The man,who had links to two right-wing groups, admitted handing over bundles of documents to an undercover officer.
Included in the information were maps and aerial photographs of various New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) bases around the country, as well as passcodes, login details to its IT system, telephone directories and handwritten assessments of the vulnerabilities of the Linton Military Camp.
Two years is the maximum time that can be served at the facility, and any greater sentence must be served in a civilian prison.
After the sentencing, the NZDF’s director of military proceedings filed an appeal against the court martial’s “manifestly inadequate” punishment in a bid to have the soldier sent to a civilian prison.
Today, at a hearing of the Courts Martial Appeal Court sitting at the High Court in Wellington, the Crown, on behalf of NZDF’s director of military proceedings, argued that a sentence for attempted espionage needed to deter against similar offending.
“There’s a need for the clang of the prison gates,” Lieutenant Colonel Robert Goguel told the court.
“Imprisonment, it is submitted, is the only punishment available that can achieve the general deterrence needed.”
Goguel said the soldier had “betrayed his oath of allegiance”, and the court-martial panel did not give enough weight to the seriousness of his offending.
Goguel also said the soldier was not particularly young, not remorseful and was not suffering from any form of addiction, and so his rehabilitation should not have been a significant mitigating factor at sentencing.
There are only 10 spaces at the SCE, and most armed forces personnel spend less than a month there following a summary trial, many for drug offences.
Goguel said the NZDF shouldn’t have to expend more resources trying to reintegrate him into society.
The soldier has so far served two months at SCE, and Goguel argued to substitute his total sentence for one of at least one year and eight months in a civilian prison.
The court martial was five years in the making after the soldier was first arrested in 2019. Photo / Jeremy Wilkinson
The soldier’s lawyer, Steve Winter, said the panel took into account the five-year delay in bringing the matter to trial, which his client spent on “open arrest” and on full pay.
He was, however, living on a military base with his family while he initially faced 17 charges, including espionage, rather than the downgraded charge of attempted espionage he pleaded guilty to.
“The closest analogy I can find is placing an informant in amongst the community he informed on,” Winter said.
The lawyer said the director of military prosecutions chose to try the case at court martial when it could have been tried through a civilian court.
He said a court martial was chosen knowing full well that a sentence of military detention was possible.
“It may not be that the Crown ever thought that would happen,” Winter said.
“It cannot be said that two years of rigorous military discipline can be anything less than a significant deterrent to a member of the military.”
One of the appeal court’s three-person panel, Judge Craig Ruane, questioned whether there was a perception from the public that military detention was a soft option, to which Winter said he invited anyone who thought that to “try it”.
Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū, covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.
