
Chch soldier guilty of taking intimate images of a woman without consent
Corporal Manu Smith during the hearing. Photo: Pool / Stuff / Kai Schwoerer
A soldier has been found guilty of taking intimate images of a woman without consent.
Corporal Manu Smith was facing a court martial on one count of making intimate visual recordings.
The three-person military panel found Corporal Smith guilty of taking images of the woman without her knowledge or consent.
Corporal Smith was facing three counts under the Armed Forces Discipline Act, but on Tuesday morning Justice Tom Gilbert advised the military panel he had granted the defence's request to drop two of the charges.
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.
Corporal Smith earlier said the pair had talked about boundaries and they had discussed filming sexual encounters - and said if she had asked him to stop, he would have.
The hearing, at Burnham Military Camp, was earlier told Corporal Smith laughed about the accusations when he was confronted.

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