Soldier with far-right links becomes first convicted spy in New Zealand history
August 19, 2025 1 Comment
A DISAFFECTED SOLDIER, WHO tried to commit espionage against New Zealand for a foreign government, has become the first convicted spy in the Pacific Island nation’s history. The only other time New Zealand prosecuted an individual for espionage was in 1974, when the government accused Bill Sutch, a prominent, English-born civil servant, of spying for the Soviet Union. Sutch was acquitted in 1975 and died soon afterwards.
According to reports, a member of the New Zealand Defence Force, who has not been named, drew the attention of the authorities in the aftermath of the 2019 Christchurch shooting. The attack was carried out by Australian white supremacist Brenton Tarrant, who stormed a mosque with an automatic weapon, killing 51 and injuring nearly 100 people. The terrorist attack sparked a widespread investigation into far-right militancy in the Australian and New Zealand armed forces, which continues to this day.
The soldier was found to have contacts with a number of local far-right groups, including the Dominion Movement and Action Zealandia. Government prosecutors said that, while observing the soldier’s activities, government agents found out that he had “made contact with a third party, indicating that he was a soldier” and signaling his desire to defect to a foreign country. They eventually approached the soldier using an undercover officer who pretended to be a representative of the country whose officials the soldier had previously contacted. The soldier told the undercover officer that he was prepared to “get a covert device into army headquarters” and offered to provide “mapping and photographs” of classified government facilities.
During his trial, the soldier pled guilty, admitting that he had tied to spy for a foreign government, and adding that his ultimate goal was to “leave New Zealand and get to what I thought was safety”. Following the soldier’s conviction, the three-judge military panel said it would announce the sentence later this week. The country for which the convicted soldier offered to spy has not been named.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 18 August 2025 | Permalink
intelNews.org 
James Fleury for New Zealand’s 1News subsequently reported on August 20, 2025 at https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/08/20/new-zealand-soldier-sentenced-dismissed-for-attempted-espionage/
“New Zealand soldier sentenced, dismissed for attempted espionage
A soldier who was convicted of attempted espionage has been sentenced to two years in military detention and dismissed from the army.
The soldier handed over sensitive information to a person who he thought was a foreign agent but was really part of an undercover sting.
He admitted charges of attempted espionage, dishonestly accessing a computer system and possessing an objectionable publication, at the start of a court martial hearing at Linton Military Camp, near Palmerston North, [on New Zealand’s most populated North Island] on Monday. [August 18, 2025]
The attempted espionage charge dated to December 2019 when the soldier attempted to hand information to the undercover agent.
“This was not a sophisticated espionage plot,” chief judge Kevin Riordan told the court as he explained the sentence. “Indeed, the court wonders how you could’ve been so naive.”
Nonetheless, any offending that put New Zealand’s security and its military at risk was serious, the judge said.
“There is no such thing as a non-serious act of espionage. There is no trivial act of espionage.”
The soldier would serve his sentence at Burnham Military Camp south of Christchurch…”
[Too often earthquake hit Christchurch is the largest city of New Zealand’s South Island]
MORE SEE https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/08/20/new-zealand-soldier-sentenced-dismissed-for-attempted-espionage/