Soldier charged with filming women during sex treated accusations as a joke, court martial told

RNZ News

4 hours ago

Corporal Manu Smith during the hearing.
Photo:
Pool / Stuff / Kai Schwoerer
A soldier accused of filming women during sex without their permission laughed about the accusations when confronted about them, a court martial has heard.
Corporal Manu Smith is facing three counts of making intimate visual recordings.
He has pleaded not guilty.
A hearing at the Burnham Military Camp began this morning and is expected to take three days.
Smith has been accused of making the recordings of two civilian women, without their knowledge or consent.
He has contended he thought he had permission.
Prosecutor Flight Lieutenant Hannah O'Byrne told the court both women would say Smith recorded them without asking, and then sent the recordings via Snapchat.
Smith treated it as a joke when confronted about the recordings, O'Byrne said.
One woman complained she asked him if he had shared the images with others, which he also laughed off, O'Byrne said.
One of the women - who had name suppression - gave evidence this morning via audio-visual link.
Smith's lawyer Matthew Hague asked her about a chat group involving the woman and others who had dated Smith.
The woman joined the group after she and the solider had broken up.
She agreed the group's members did not like Smith.
Hague asked if it was true the group discussed ways to cause trouble for Smith.
The woman accepted the group had discussed it and she raised the sexual images as a way to get Smith in trouble.
She wanted him to hurt as much as he had hurt her over the course of their relationship, she said.
The woman consented to having sex with Smith, but not to him filming it, she said.
Under questioning by Hague, she accepted she had worked with others in chat group on her complaint about Smith. But she said that was only because she was not very good with words.
She denied making up the claims and said she thought if there were multiple complaints they were more likely to be believed.
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