Revealed: Northern Territory defence personnel behaving badly

SEE THE FULL LIST: The NT is a proud defence community, but with so many soldiers, sailors and aircrew among us, there’s bound to be a few bad apples. Read the list of Territorians in uniform getting up to no good.

The NT is a proud defence community, but with so many soldiers, sailors and aircrew among us, there’s bound to be a few bad apples.

Read the list of Territorians in uniform getting up to no good.

Soldier demoted to private for failing to keep his privates private

IN JANUARY this year, the NT News revealed a Darwin soldier who sent a colleague a dick pic would keep his job after he was handed a 28 day suspended sentence and demoted.

The man, referred to in court documents only as Corporal Veltman, pleaded guilty in the Defence Force Magistrates Court in August to using a carriage service to cause offence.

The court heard both he and the female soldier were members of Darwin’s 1st Combat Signal Regiment when they attended a social function at a local pub in November 2020.

Veltman sat next to the woman and told her to look at her phone and when she did, she discovered he had sent her a picture of his penis via Facebook Messenger.

The woman told Veltman she had a boyfriend and later caught an Uber home after he had left the hotel.

Soldier speaks out about growing list of sex pests in uniform

IN DECEMBER last year, a Darwin soldier spoke out about the growing list of her colleagues being busted for sexualised offending after another officer pleaded guilty to distributing intimate images of a third soldier without her consent.

The woman came forward when the Defence Force Magistrates Court heard Lieutenant Brett Harmsworth was allowed to keep his job after he was caught filming himself having sex with the victim using Snapchat in December 2019.

Then in January last year, while socialising with a fellow soldier in Darwin, Harmsworth told the other man he’d slept with the woman and when he didn’t believe him, he showed him the video on his phone.

The other man reported the incident and Harmsworth co-operated with investigators and provided his phone’s PIN before eventually pleading guilty to the charge in November.

A trio of soldier were caught out claiming hundreds of dollars in meal allowances at Robertson Barracks they weren’t entitled to.

Grunts find out there’s no such thing as a free lunch

IN SEPTEMBER last year,three Darwin soldiers were forced to spend three weeks in the slammer after finding out the hard way that there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

Privates Tyler James Frost, Indiana Halatau-Puwanai Easthope and James Michael Clarke each pleaded guilty in the Defence Force Magistrates Court to obtaining a financial advantage after they were caught out claiming hundreds of dollars in meal allowances they weren’t entitled to.

A fourth soldier, Lance Corporal Corey James Willes also pleaded guilty to the same charge but avoided spending any time behind bars after being busted back to private as the total value of his ill-gotten grub was only about $200.

The court heard the four soldiers unlawfully claimed a live in meal allowance when dining at the Robertson Barracks mess a number of times between 2017 and 2019, with the result that they did not end up paying for those meals.

Sergeant Michael Buswell assaulted a subordinate at the Mt Bundy training area in 2020.

Sergeant stays in service despite drunken grope on subordinate

YET another Top End soldier was allowed to keep his job in March after drunkenly groping a female subordinate’s breast while on an exercise at the Mt Bundy training area.

Sergeant Michael William Buswell, 39, pleaded guilty in the Defence Force Magistrates Court at Robertson Barracks to one count of assaulting the corporal during exercise Buffalo Run.

Flight Lieutenant Emma Palmer, prosecuting, told the court Buswell and the woman were both part of a team of chefs catering the exercise when Buswell made the call to buy some alcohol for himself and his juniors on August 27.

Flt Lt Palmer said grog was banned on the exercise without the commanding officer’s written permission, which Buswell didn’t have at the time.

Nonetheless, the group began drinking after dinner that night, with Buswell becoming “heavily intoxicated” on whiskey before deciding to give the group’s only female member a shoulder massage.

Fine slashed following misleading travel claim

IN FEBRUARY, it was revealed a Darwin soldier who pocketed more than $1500 after submitting a misleading travel claim had her $2400 fine cut by two thirds after an official review.

Private Jessica Rachel Tibbitts pleaded guilty in the Defence Force Magistrates Court at Robertson Barracks to one count of obtaining financial advantage late last year.

The court heard Tibbitts submitted a travel request form to claim reimbursement for a trip to visit family in Sydney, saying she would travel by car.

The request was approved and Tibbitts received a direct payment of $1524.40 to cover her costs but then instead travelled to Brisbane with her partner and flew to Sydney at her own expense.

Major Leigh McWhirter overcharged taxpayers for a swanky Cullen Bay apartment.

Officer cops fine for overcharging taxpayers on swanky Cullen Bay digs

NOT long before that, a Darwin army officer who overcharged taxpayers more than $4500 for a swanky Cullen Bay apartment he shared with his girlfriend was slapped with a $2200 fine.

Major Leigh McWhirter, 33, pleaded guilty in the Defence Force Magistrates Court at Robertson Barracks in 2020 to one count of unlawfully obtaining financial advantage.

The court heard McWhirter had been receiving rental assistance from Defence Housing Australia for his $675 per week Cullen Bay apartment since 2018 on the basis that he lived there alone.

But prosecuting officer Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Fielden said after McWhirter’s partner moved in with him in November last year he failed to notify DHA of his change in circumstances until the following May.

The failure to update DHA resulted in McWhirter being overpaid $4562.91 in rental assistance he was no longer entitled to after he started sharing the property with the woman, who worked as an events officer at Charles Darwin University.

Soldier caught with hand in the till

ANOTHER soldier was caught with his hand in the till when he pocketed more than $1300 in travel allowances he wasn’t entitled to after being transferred from Brisbane.

Private Samuel Donald King, 30, was pleaded guilty to obtaining a financial advantage in a Defence Force Magistrates Court hearing at Robertson Barracks in July 2019.

In his submissions to the court, prosecuting officer Lieutenant Commander Joshua Nottle said King had claimed a travel allowance in order to drive from his previous posting in Brisbane to start work in Darwin in February last year.

But instead of driving between the bases, Lt Cmdr Nottle said King flew to Sydney to visit family, where he was delayed, and flew straight from there to Darwin.

And instead of informing his superiors of the change, which would have entitled him to a smaller allowance, King pocketed the $1319.67 difference.

Bombardier Alexander Edwards was found guilty of groping a junior colleague.

ADF defends culture after drunken grope

THE Australian Defence Force has been defending its handling of uniformed sex offenders as far back as June 2019, when Bombardier Alexander Edwards was sentenced to a dishonourable discharge and 20 days jail.

Edwards was found guilty in the Defence Force Magistrates Court in Darwin of groping a junior colleague under his clothes after a boozy night out in 2018.

The offence was committed in South Australia, where the maximum penalty is eight years in prison but Edwards served just 20 days of a 30-day sentence handed down at his first trial.

The victim reported the indecent assault to a superior and the investigation was handed over to military police and ended up in a Defence Force Magistrates Court where the maximum penalty is six months’ jail.

But an ADF spokeswoman told the NT News it did not support the suggestion Edwards’ sacking was a “light sentence” and defended the military hierarchy’s decision not to advise the victim to report the assault to SA Police.

‘Cultural reform’ under fire following officer’s homophobic slurs

THE ADF’s “cultural reform journey” was also under the spotlight earlier that year after a senior officer was convicted of repeatedly using homophobic slurs to describe a subordinate.

Darwin Flight Sergeant Craig Rochester pleaded guilty in a Defence Force Magistrates Court to prejudicial conduct for calling the other man a “fag, faggot and homo”.

Prosecutors initially alleged Flt Sgt Rochester also referred to a female superior as a “dumb, fat bitch” and to Indigenous people as “f***ing stinkies”.

But he pleaded not guilty to those charges and after the prosecution led no evidence to support them they were formally dismissed.

Flt Sgt Rochester was sentenced to a 12-month “reduction in seniority” for the homophobic language but not demoted in rank.

An ADF spokeswoman said the organisation had been on “a cultural reform journey for many years” ensuring all personnel were “accountable for creating a more positive and inclusive culture”.

Originally published as Revealed: Northern Territory defence personnel behaving badly