the case could<\/a> lead to a court martial.<\/p>\n![\"Someone]()
Someone contacted former Minister of Defence Judith Collins the day after the Palmerston North incident to say the female soldier was in hiding. Photo \/ Sylvie Whinray <\/p>\n
In the military justice system, alleged offending can be dealt with through a summary trial system, remanded to a court martial which operates like a court, or referred to civilian authorities such as police. <\/p>\n
The summary trial system \u2013 where the case currently sits \u2013 has faced criticism from the Ministry of Defence \u2013 NZDF\u2019s civilian oversight body \u2013 over whether commanders are sufficiently independent or equipped to handle serious, complex or sensitive cases.<\/p>\n
Over the following months, XX\u2019s case moved towards a full suppression hearing, where the Herald fought to publish further details about the accused.<\/p>\n
New suppression order<\/p>\n
In a decision on June 19, the soldier\u2019s commanding officer said the identities of XX and YY would remain secret. That suppression would continue until XX\u2019s charges were dealt with or until a court-martial varied or discharged the secrecy order.<\/p>\n
The commanding officer\u2019s ruling said the investigation into the soldier\u2019s breach of orders had not been completed.<\/p>\n
It also revealed the female soldier was still experiencing profound stress and anxiety beyond that normally experienced by people involved in such proceedings.<\/p>\n
It said she was in a troubled psychological state because she believed there was an ongoing threat to her physical safety.<\/p>\n
![\"The]()
The female soldier has told commanders that she continues to feel frightened. Photo \/ Mike Scott <\/p>\n
The documents showed the woman considered her life and the lives of others were at risk at the time of the alleged incident \u2013 and that she still considers herself to be at risk.<\/p>\n
She believed XX\u2019s name and rank should be suppressed but that his Army unit should be named.<\/p>\n
It recorded her position as saying \u201cmental health issues within the [suppressed Army unit] could have resulted in the death of her and others if the police had not intervened\u201d.<\/p>\n
NZME, in opposing the ongoing suppression, asked whether XX\u2019s commanding officer was too close to the case to be impartial.<\/p>\n
The commander, when releasing his decision, said \u201ctrue independence\u201d was not possible in the military justice system.<\/p>\n
The Armed Forces Discipline Act made him both the soldier\u2019s commander \u2013 requiring he be aware of wellbeing \u2013 while also being the officer responsible for decisions in the disciplinary process.<\/p>\n
He said the law did not require the independence expected of a civilian judge, or even of military members sitting on a court-martial. Requiring that level of independence, he said, would undermine the military justice system\u2019s need to be portable, quick and run by non-lawyers.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrue independence is not possible\u201d in that military process, he said. \u201cIf it did, the armed forces disciplinary process could not function.\u201d<\/p>\n
A flawed system?<\/p>\n
A 2019 review of the military justice system by the Ministry of Defence warned the summary trial process was not well suited to serious, complex or sensitive cases.<\/p>\n
The review found the system worked best for mid-level disciplinary offences, such as disobeying a lawful command, drunkenness or avoiding duty.<\/p>\n
But it said it was ill-suited for serious problems including violence, sexual offending or other sensitive conduct.<\/p>\n
In those cases, the review said the process was not sufficiently fair to either the victim or the accused. It said the reasons for that were that summary trial processes are run by military personnel inside the command system, not by independent judges.<\/p>\n
While those involved might be well-intentioned and professional, it said they were not necessarily independent or legally specialised.<\/p>\n
The review said serious matters required safeguards beyond those available in ordinary command-led discipline.<\/p>\n
The review identified impartiality as a recurring concern because the disciplinary officer was in the accused\u2019s chain of command.<\/p>\n
It said the command structure can create risks of bias or perceived unfairness, even where officers act in good faith.<\/p>\n
The review also highlighted a major limitation in legal representation because lawyers were not allowed at a summary trial. The accused is instead assigned a \u201cdefending officer\u201d, usually another military member, which had an impact in serious cases.<\/p>\n
Area\u2019s top cop takes control<\/p>\n
The Herald has learned the January operation to find the soldier was overseen by the Manawat\u016b district\u2019s most senior officer on duty at the time.<\/p>\n
Detective Inspector Craig Sheridan said the area district commander \u2013 Superintendent Dion Bennett \u2013 \u201ctook control of this incident\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, this was purely a matter of timing. Given the time of day, other senior officers of appropriate rank had finished their shift for the day and gone home, and the district commander was still at work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Documents released through the Official Information Act show that the police and NZDF media teams shared statements and offered suggestions to each other during Herald inquiries.<\/p>\n
![\"Chief]()
Chief of Army Major General Rose King told the Herald that a command investigation would be carried out into the incident and what took place earlier. Photo \/ Sylvie Whinray <\/p>\n
The Herald had put detailed questions to police and NZDF after being told the Army member was highly agitated and that police had been warned of threats to kill and to burn a house or houses. The Herald also asked whether weapons or incendiary devices had been recovered, whether anyone had been hurt, whether charges would be laid, and whether NZDF had made representations to police about possible charges.<\/p>\n
Police said no weapons or homemade bombs had been recovered but refused to release most other information relating to the incident, citing grounds including prejudice to the prevention, investigation and detection of offences, and fair trial rights.<\/p>\n
The case also brought in Judith Collins as Minister of Defence, with an email sent the evening after the incident telling her that YY was in hiding and feared for her life.<\/p>\n
The email to Collins alleged a pattern of unwanted attention and escalating conduct. It alleged NZDF had failed to take adequate steps to protect YY\u2019s welfare and safety.<\/p>\n
NZDF has said it does not accept that all of the claims in that email are accurate. At an early High Court hearing, a lawyer for NZDF said some information was not accurate, some may have been overstated, and some of the more serious matters were being looked into.<\/p>\n
Herald inquiries also prompted Chief of Army Major General Rose King to disclose that the Army had already decided before the Palmerston North incident that a \u201ccommand investigation\u201d was warranted, to be carried out by a senior lawyer.<\/p>\n
In January, she told the Herald it had yet to begin but would proceed and include the Palmerston North incident in its scope.<\/p>\n
David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He joined the Herald in 2004.<\/p>\n
Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The soldier\u2019s commanding officer\u2019s name was also suppressed. NZDF\u2019s documents show XX faces two military charges of disobeying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1117,74,7818,8227,4995,5195,8843,11520,118628,127,73195,13994,9787,2993,3375,13617,111,43,139,69,6848,188013,20863,5764,2069,13618,6859,6730,80],"class_list":["post-509898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-accused","tag-after","tag-allegedly","tag-army","tag-away","tag-be","tag-believed","tag-colleague","tag-commanders","tag-despite","tag-explicit","tag-feared","tag-female","tag-grants","tag-killed","tag-name","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-orders","tag-pursued","tag-she","tag-soldier","tag-stay","tag-suppression","tag-told","tag-would","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509898","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=509898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}