Shower camera penalty too tough, says officer

An Army officer dismissed for secretly filming a female colleague while she was having a shower believes his punishment is too severe for his crime.

Lieutenant Andrew David Goode, aged 29, says the camera was not switched on during the incident.

He pleaded guilty at a court martial this week to behaving in an indecent and disgraceful manner on October 5, and to another charge of being in the female shower block.

He said yesterday that the camera had been turned off, but because he pleaded guilty to the charges he was not given the chance to present evidence in his defence at his court martial at the Waiouru Army camp.

Lieutenant Goode, who was based at Linton, near Palmerston North, said he believed he would be given credit for pleading guilty, but that had not been the case.

"I don't believe I got a fair court martial at all, but there is nothing I can do about it because I pleaded guilty ...

"I take full responsibility for my actions. It was an incredibly stupid thing to do, but it was meant as joke. What they are doing is making an example of me."

He said a number of his colleagues had told him how severe they believed the outcome had been.

In similar cases, Army staff had received a demotion in rank, he said. Late last year, a sergeant at Trentham had been demoted to lance corporal for indecently assaulting an officer by fondling his genitals - actions Lieutenant Goode believed were more serious than his own.

He believed he had been singled out after a rash of harassment and assault cases in the forces in the past few years.

An Army board of review will look at the court martial result before making a final decision on the case, but Lieutenant Goode said he did not hold out any hope.

He believed the same influence that had come to bear on his court martial would also come to bear on the board of review.

Prosecuting lawyer Gordon Hook said at the court martial that it was not the first time Lieutenant Goode had acted inappropriately.

At a mess party in Linton, he had played a pornographic tape while about 12 people, including women, were present. He had been reprimanded and banned from the mess.

Commander Hook said it was important to send a message that the Army in the 21st century "was all about gender integration and ... for women to enjoy careers free from harassment."

The court martial heard that Lieutenant Goode, wearing only a towel, sneaked into the women's shower block at the camp and for about 30 seconds pointed a video camera over the top of the cubicle and filmed the woman, also a lieutenant.

The complainant said that as soon as she saw the camera poking over the top of the cubicle her reaction was "shock, disbelief and anger."

"I couldn't get over how stupid he could be."

She said she decided to make a complaint because "hand on heart" she could not be absolutely sure that Lieutenant Goode had not done something similar before or would not again.

She had not suffered long term, she said.

The two officers served together in East Timor.

Lieutenant Goode, an intelligence officer with 10 years' service, told the court martial that the incident was a spur of the moment joke that had backfired.

"For some reason I decided I would play a joke - give the girls a bit of a wind-up."

When the complainant, who had stormed naked out of the shower, asked him for the tape, he erased it in front of her, he said.

Lieutenant Goode, a divorcee, said he did not know why he had done it.

"Everyone makes mistakes in their life."

- NZPA