A senior naval officer who was dismissed from the service for having a relationship with a subordinate has had his convictions quashed.
Commodore Kevin Keat was dismissed last October after being found guilty of five of eight charges of breaching orders by not disclosing the affair, not ending the relationship and threatening the woman involved and her daughter, at a court martial at Trentham, north of Wellington.
His lawyer Michael Bott told Radio New Zealand his client appealed against the convictions on the grounds the judge misdirected the military panel that decided the verdict and sentence.
"It's an error of law, which means that the convictions themselves are unsafe and so therefore the convictions were properly quashed."
It was up to the Court Martial Appeal Court to decide on a retrial, Mr Bott said.
