Latest news with #courtmartial
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Military panel drops two charges against soldier accused of filming during sex without consent
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.
RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
Soldier charged with filming women during sex treated accusations as a joke, court martial told
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. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Irish Times
28-05-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Military Ombudsman writes to Tánaiste urging army officer's promotion
Defence Forces Ombudsman Mr Justice Alan Mahon has written to Tánaiste Simon Harris recommending the promotion of an army officer following the conclusion of a court martial process against him. The letter to Mr Harris, who is also Minister for Defence, follows two official reports by the retired appeal court judge stating the career of the officer, who he describes as a highly-regarded member of the Defence Forces, should be 'rehabilitated' and that he should be granted promotion without delay. The first report was sent to Defence Forces Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Seán Clancy, in December 2024. The second was sent in January 2025. Military management almost always acts on the recommendations of the Defence Forces Ombudsman, although it is under no obligation to do so. READ MORE In the usual course of events, an officer's commanding general sends a recommendation for promotion to the chief of staff, who in turn sends it to the Minister of Defence for formal approval. It is understood that in this case, the general officer commanding the officer's formation has recommend his promotion. The officer's name was not on the most recent list of promotion instruments signed by Mr Harris earlier this month, despite Mr Justice Mahon's representations that he be promoted immediately and that the promotion be backdated to July 2024. Late last year, the officer was told he was not being promoted, despite scoring highly on the relevant exam. Instead, he was told he was being placed on 12 months' 'probation', after which his promotion application would be reviewed. The officer was later informed this probation period had been reduced to six months, a period which has now expired. In 2022, the officer, who cannot be identified due to strict reporting restrictions imposed by the judge in this court martial, was accused of nine offences, including stealing military equipment and ammunition. Following lengthy legal proceedings, which saw charges being dropped and redrafted a number of times, the officer pleaded guilty to a single charge of omitting to record two historic items of military equipment that had been in the military stores for 30 years. As noted in one of the ombudsman's reports, the officer's legal team said he did this to bring an end to the 'fabricated debacle'. The military judge imposed a reprimand and fined him three days' pay, the lowest possible punishment on the scale. At the time the military judge described it as a 'disciplinary matter' rather than a criminal charge. In his investigation report filed last year, Mr Justice Mahon noted submissions from the officer's lawyers had been 'highly critical' of the military justice process. He said these submissions make for 'disturbing reading'. Mr Justice Mahon noted the officer satisfied all conditions for appointment to a senior rank in 2022 when he first applied for promotion. His conduct was recorded as 'exemplary', he had finished eighth in the promotion competition and had passed the medical and fitness exams. In response to queries, a Defence Forces spokesman said it does not comment on 'individual cases of currently serving personnel. The Department of Defence said it would be inappropriate to comment on confidential reports.
Daily Mail
11-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Shock update in case of Navy officer's wife found strangled to death inside hotel room in Japan
A US Navy officer is facing a possible court-martial after he was arrested and charged with murder in the death of his wife, who was found strangled in a Japanese hotel room last fall. Lieutenant Commander Christopher Olsen was also charged with obstruction of justice after a preliminary hearing on Wednesday at Naval Base San Diego, according to Commander Paul Macapagal of Naval Forces Japan. The harrowing case involves the death of Olsen's wife, Jessica 'Jesse' Arguinzoni Olsen, 37, whose body was discovered on October 28 in a hotel room in Fukuoka - about 80 miles from Sasebo Naval Base. Jesse was found bleeding and unresponsive in a room believed to be at Hotel SOL in the city's Chuo district, Kyodo News reported October 29. 'We don't know the reason or the story, but something set off her husband, Chris, and he became so mad that he struck her and strangled her,' Jesse's sister, Dominique Arguinzoni, told 12 News. Her body was returned to her family on November 16 and showed signs of severe trauma - head injuries, a broken jaw and fractured hyoid bones, suggesting strangulation, Arguinzoni told Stars and Stripes. The couple met at SUNY Oswego and married in 2009, according to Arguinzoni. Jesse worked as a substitute teacher at a US base school, Ernest J. King Middle School, in Sasebo, where Christopher was stationed from November 2022 to December 2023. Olsen, enlisted in the Navy in April 2014, served aboard the USS Chief and USS New Orleans before his current posting to the Naval Surface Group Southwest in San Diego. 'We had no idea they ever had issues,' Arguinzoni said. 'None of her friends, even her best friend, had an inkling. However, thinking back, my parents and I realized she had pulled away from us by reducing communications from every week to every other month or so.' Dominique slammed the Navy's handling of the family notification, which came shortly after midnight on October 28, Arguinzoni told Stars and Stripes. 'There was no in-person visit, no support team, no effort to ensure they were physically or emotionally able to process the news,' she said. 'We were simply told Jesse was dead - and that her husband LDCR Christopher Olsen was a person of interest.' Nearly seven months later, the family still hasn't received Jesse's belongings. 'We want to grieve,' Arguinzoni added. 'We can't even wrap up her stuff, and it's been very frustrating because the little bit of information we get, it throws us back into when they first called us and told us she was gone.' A community has since rallied around the fallen teacher as a public group 'Justice for Jesse Olsen' has been created with an aim to 'build up her legacy again.' 'She was a remarkably strong woman, full of joy, humor, and individuality. Jesse lived her vibrant life to the fullest and still had so much ahead of her. She was taken far too soon,' the page reads. 'The pain and injustice of what Jesse and her family endured will not be forgotten or forgiven. #JusticeforJesseOlsen #JesseOlsen #FRSH2DF.' Olsen was charged with second-degree murder and obstruction of justice. He is in the brig until his May 7 trial in San Diego, California, 12 News reported. He faces a possible court martial as well and could face a dishonorable discharge, confinement, or capital punishment, according to Stars and Stripes.
