{"id":357434,"date":"2026-03-31T21:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T21:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/357434\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T21:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T21:08:11","slug":"army-veteran-and-ex-policeman-samuel-sweetmans-spiral-into-criminal-offending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/357434\/","title":{"rendered":"Army veteran and ex-policeman Samuel Sweetman\u2019s spiral into criminal offending"},"content":{"rendered":"

First published on \"NZ<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

\nFormer police constable Samuel Sweetman, 37, drove dangerously, fled police and attacked another officer.
\nPhoto: NZME\n<\/p>\n

After serving in the army and working as a police constable in child protection services, the traumatic events Sam Sweetman had encountered caught up with him.<\/p>\n

He suffered a major depressive episode and over 10 days, he drove dangerously, fled police and attacked a police officer.<\/p>\n

Two years on, a psychological report opined that Sweetman, now 37, was experiencing a delayed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) at the time of the September 2024 offending.<\/p>\n

This was made worse by cannabis and steroid use, the report stated.<\/p>\n

At the former constable’s recent hearing in the Wait\u0101kere District Court, his lawyer Andrew Comeskey made a bid for Sweetman to be discharged without conviction on the five charges he faced.<\/p>\n

Comeskey argued the consequences of a conviction, such as difficulty applying for jobs, would be disproportionate to the offending.<\/p>\n

An afternoon walk turned violent<\/p>\n

The court was told that Sweetman asked his former colleague: “What the f*** are you smiling at?” before punching him multiple times in the face.<\/p>\n

At the time of the assault, the victim was going for an afternoon stroll through a park walkway in Hobsonville with a friend.<\/p>\n

\"Sam<\/p>\n

\nSam Sweetman when he graduated from the Royal New Zealand Police College in Porirua in 2014.
\nPhoto: NZME\n<\/p>\n

Sweetman had resigned from New Zealand Police three months earlier after suffering symptoms of burnout and depression.<\/p>\n

He was also going for a walk when the two crossed paths.<\/p>\n

They had worked together in the Waitemat\u0101 district and the victim acknowledged Sweetman.<\/p>\n

His response was to ask what the victim was “smiling at” before punching him in the face multiple times, the agreed-upon summary of facts stated.<\/p>\n

The pair tripped over the sidewalk, falling to the ground and the victim’s friend intervened, jumping on Sweetman’s back.<\/p>\n

Sweetman then walked away.<\/p>\n

The altercation lasted around 30 seconds, and the victim was left with a black eye.<\/p>\n

Fleeing police<\/p>\n

Eight days earlier, Sweetman was driving a Ducati motorbike on State Highway 16 in Henderson.<\/p>\n

He was seen speeding by police and a patrol car’s sirens were switched on, indicating that Sweetman must pull over.<\/p>\n

Instead he sped away, weaving through traffic until police abandoned their chase.<\/p>\n

Three days after the assault, Sweetman was driving on State Highway 18 in Albany.<\/p>\n

He was heading east, as was a marked police car ahead of him.<\/p>\n

Sweetman approached the back of the vehicle at speed, before swerving into a neighbouring lane to avoid impact at the last minute.<\/p>\n

After driving at 127km\/h in a 100km\/h zone, he slowed so he was parallel to the police car before swerving toward it, and missing it only by about 30cm.<\/p>\n

The police car’s sirens were switched on and, again, Sweetman took off, speeding and swerving through lanes.<\/p>\n

After Sweetman abruptly pulled over, the police car stopped ahead of him.<\/p>\n

However, the officer in the vehicle feared for his safety and drove away.<\/p>\n

Sweetman was later located at a gym in Albany and was taken into custody.<\/p>\n

A psychotic disorder<\/p>\n

The court heard the psychological report stated that Sweetman had been under so much stress and pressure at the time that he had developed a psychotic disorder.<\/p>\n

He was at the time experiencing paranoid thoughts related to the police, such as their putting recording devices in his car.<\/p>\n

After he was arrested, Sweetman was placed on involuntary psychiatric hold and prescribed anti-psychotic medication.<\/p>\n

Following his time in hospital, he was released on bail and quickly moved to the South Island to be closer to family and recuperate.<\/p>\n

\"Sam<\/p>\n

\nSam Sweetman’s medals were awarded for his service in the New Zealand Defence Force.
\nPhoto: NZME\n<\/p>\n

At the hearing, Judge Lisa Tremewan acknowledged that all the incidents related to the police.<\/p>\n

She said it was clear that Sweetman was suffering from delusional thoughts at the time and felt he was being targeted by his former employer.<\/p>\n

“[You felt] the person you assaulted, perhaps, was part of some surveillance that you felt you were under,” she told Sweetman.<\/p>\n

“But the court is heartened to see you are no longer saying that.”<\/p>\n

Sweetman had since realised the assault victim and his friend were just out for a walk, as he was, and how he responded was wrong, and the result of delusional thoughts, the judge said.<\/p>\n

Leave before resigning<\/p>\n

The court heard Sweetman had joined the New Zealand Defence Force at 18.<\/p>\n

He served for seven years, during which he worked as a medic in war-torn Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

He later entered the police force, working on the front line, the Criminal Investigation Bureau and for two years, the child protection team.<\/p>\n

A year before he resigned, in April 2023, Sweetman experienced a mental breakdown due to stress from work, the gym and his relationship.<\/p>\n

He took two weeks off work, feeling exhausted and burnt-out, and engaged a psychologist.<\/p>\n

A report from his psychologist at this time said Sweetman appeared sad, tearful, apprehensive and lacked enjoyment.<\/p>\n

After the short period of leave, he felt guilty, suspecting his employers thought he was lazy.<\/p>\n

The court heard he resigned in June 2024 when his symptoms worsened.<\/p>\n

Crown prosecutor Caitlin Bourke opposed the discharge without conviction application.<\/p>\n

She submitted concerns that Sweetman was not taking enough action to maintain his mental health.<\/p>\n

Despite engaging psychologists before his offending, he had told the report writer he no longer wanted to attend talk therapy.<\/p>\n

Bourke was concerned that Sweetman had told the report writer he no longer took some medications and continued to use cannabis and steroids.<\/p>\n

Judge Tremewan said it sounded like Sweetman had given therapy “quite a go” and it was understandable he may not want to talk about the things he had seen during his career.<\/p>\n

She trusted that he was in a safe environment, removed from his previous pressures, and did not believe his use of drugs had caused the offending.<\/p>\n

A ‘stoic’ who served others<\/p>\n

The judge discharged Sweetman without conviction on the two charges of dangerous driving, failing to stop and one of common assault.<\/p>\n

But for his mental health episode, none of the offending would have happened, she said.<\/p>\n

She called Sweetman “a stoic”, saying he liked to tough it out, serve others and not talk about it.<\/p>\n

It was “quite obvious” that his past work would have been gruelling and had an impact on him, particularly his time with the child protection team.<\/p>\n

“A special unit, one that might be called upon to deal with some of the most traumatic kinds of individuals and cases that there are.”<\/p>\n

She suggested that in future, he find a less stressful profession to help maintain his wellness.<\/p>\n

Starting on a new career path at his age was difficult enough without a conviction on his record, she said.<\/p>\n

However, for the driving matters, he was disqualified for six months.<\/p>\n

-This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First published on Former police constable Samuel Sweetman, 37, drove dangerously, fled police and attacked another officer. Photo:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-357434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}