Military panel drops two charges against soldier accused of filming during sex without consent

RNZ News

5 hours ago

Corporal Manu Smith.
Photo:
Pool / Stuff / Kai Schwoerer
Two of the charges against a soldier
accused of taking sexual videos without consent
have been dropped.
Corporal Manu Smith was facing a Court Martial on three counts of making intimate visual recordings under the Armed Forces Discipline Act.
In a Court Martial, a military panel make a decision on the accused's guilt or innocence.
On Tuesday morning, Justice Tom Gilbert, who was presiding over the court, advised the military panel that he had granted the defence's request to drop two of the charges.
The judge said 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.
That afternoon, the accused Corporal Manu Smith gave evidence for the defence.
Defence lawyer Timothy Leighton asked Corporal Smith why he had taken out his phone and started recording during sex with the complainant, and if the woman had known he was filming.
Corporal Smith said he saw it as a way of expressing their intimacy and that she had seen that he was filming on his phone, and did nothing to indicate she wanted him to stop filming.
He said the pair's relationship had been sexual from the start, and they both shared intimate sexual images with each other.
Corporal Smith said the pair had talked about boundaries.
"Yes, I expected the same respect from her that she did with me, in terms of sharing content with a third party or anybody outside.
"...It was a circle of trust, it should have been. I don't want images of me shared with her girlfriends, nor would she want me to share intimate images of her."
He said the pair had discussed filming sexual encounters, while discussing their sexual likes and dislikes, and he believed she was open to it.
Corporal Smith said he believed he did have consent to record the sexual encounter which is the subject of the complaint, and he said if she had asked him to stop he would have.
The prosecution's captain John Whitcombe asked Corporal Smith about the nature of his relationship with the complainant and whether she had reason to assume it was a exclusive relationship.
Corporal Smith said the nature of their relationship was not discussed, but he saw it as non-exclusive and he believed she did too.
Captain John Whitcombe challenged Corporal Smith's assertion that the woman had consented to the sex being filmed, asking if there was ever an express discussion about him filming on the day in question.
Corporal Smith said they had talked about it in a light-hearted jovial way.
"There was no black and white, no written agreement," he told the court.
The defence and prosecution will give their closing addresses on Tuesday afternoon.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero
,
a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.