Army sacks major for desertion

A major was dismissed from the Army after being found guilty of two charges of desertion at a court martial in Wellington last night.

Trentham-based Major Pedro van der Ent is the first New Zealand Army officer to be court martialled for desertion since the Second World War.

The charges were brought after he twice left the Army without permission to start a job as a human resources manager at Telecom.

The sentence will not take effect until it has been studied by a defence force court martial review authority, which will be made up of the deputy chiefs of the three forces and advised by the Defence Force's legal adviser Judge Advocate General Peter Trapski.

A Defence Force spokesman said the review authority could reduce or overrule the sentence. The decision would take up to several weeks, the spokesman said.

Major van der Ent would be allowed to keep his superannuation, but would lose any other benefits he had built up after 16 years of Army service, he said.

After the court martial, a drained-looking Major van der Ent said he wanted to go home and start thinking about his future.

"I just want to get some sleep, let [the decision] sink in and consider my options.

"I'm sorry we have to part our ways in this fashion.

"But ironically, it's probably the best thing for both parties."

Major van der Ent said he was not sure whether Telecom was going to keep open for him the job that had been at the centre of the trial, but he was going to talk to the company soon.

Telecom's acting human resources general manager, Martin Price, had said when called as a witness last Thursday that Telecom would decide whether the job was still open once the verdict was announced.

The court martial panel, made up of three officers from the Army, one from the Navy and one from the Air Force, took four hours to reach the verdict and another hour to agree on a sentence, which can be two years' imprisonment during peace-time.

During the five-day trial the Army said Major van der Ent had broken his oath of allegiance. If it had not challenged Major van der Ent's action the Army would "cease to be a disciplined force, and every soldier, sailor and airman" could follow suit, prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Larry Maybee said.

The defence's case centred around whether the Army had erred in law in its decision not to waive Major van der Ent's request to leave the Army without serving an "obliged" return of service period, and whether his actions constituted actual desertion.

It is not known if the panel's decision was unanimous. A majority decision is required.

- NZPA