Two charges against Corporal Manu Smith for taking sexual videos without consent have been dropped. Photo / Pool
Two charges against Corporal Manu Smith for taking sexual videos without consent have been dropped. Photo / Pool
By RNZ
Two of the charges against a soldier accused of taking sexual videos without consent have been dropped.
Corporal Manu Smith was facing a Court Martial under the Armed Forces Discipline Act on three counts of making intimate visual recordings.
In a Court Martial, a military panel make adecision on the accused’s guilt or innocence.
On Tuesday morning, Justice Tom Gilbert, who was presiding over the court, advised the military panel that he had granted the defence’s request to drop two of the charges.
The judge said the two charges were dismissed for legal reasons, because in light of the evidence, he ruled that a properly directed panel could not reasonably convict on those charges.
That afternoon, the accused gave evidence for the defence.
Defence lawyer Timothy Leighton asked Corporal Smith why he had taken out his phone and started recording during sex with the complainant, and if the woman had known he was filming.
Corporal Smith said he saw it as a way of expressing their intimacy and that she had seen that he was filming on his phone, and did nothing to indicate she wanted him to stop filming.
He said the pair’s relationship had been sexual from the start, and they shared intimate sexual images with each other.
Corporal Smith said the pair had talked about boundaries.
“Yes, I expected the same respect from her that she did with me, in terms of sharing content with a third party or anybody outside.
“... It was a circle of trust, it should have been. I don’t want images of me shared with her girlfriends, nor would she want me to share intimate images of her.”
He said the pair had discussed filming sexual encounters, while discussing their sexual likes and dislikes, and he believed she was open to it.
Smith claimed he had consent to record, stating the complainant was aware and did not object. Photo / Pool
Corporal Smith said he believed he did have consent to record the sexual encounter that is the subject of the complaint, and he said if she had asked him to stop he would have.
The prosecution’s captain John Whitcombe asked Corporal Smith about the nature of his relationship with the complainant and whether she had reason to assume it was an exclusive relationship.
Corporal Smith said the nature of their relationship was not discussed, but he saw it as non-exclusive and he believed she did too.
Captain John Whitcombe challenged Corporal Smith’s assertion that the woman had consented to the sex being filmed, asking if there was ever an express discussion about him filming on the day in question.
