An army major has denied charges of smacking one female colleague on the bottom, sending lewd text messages to another and grabbing the thigh of a third.
In a court martial at Wellington's Trentham Army Base today, the officer, who has name suppression, pleaded not guilty to all seven charges.
He was also charged over a tirade of text messages to one of his subordinates, one which referred to the nickname given by his peers to her partner's penis.
The incidents allegedly occurred in September 2007, in New Plymouth, Linton Military Camp and Trentham Military Camp, assistant prosecutor Lieutenant Chris Sutton said.
The first charge the major faces is assault - by putting his arm around a female captain, his direct subordinate, while the pair were out drinking.
She went home when his attentions made her feel uncomfortable, so he began repeatedly text messaging her until the next morning, when he made reference to the nickname conferred upon her partner's penis during officer training.
She told him his behaviour was inappropriate and he apologised, the captain told the court.
He then told another of his female subordinates another colleague was "a good shag" before propositioning the second woman, a lieutenant.
He also faced a charge for repeatedly "smacking the (lieutenant's) bottom in an unwanted fashion".
Another of the indecent assault charges stemmed from his grabbing the thigh of third female colleague in a "blatantly unnecessary" manner when reaching for a newspaper.
Defence lawyer Tom Gilbert said the alleged offending was "minor, small, little matter" and not worth bringing to court.
"They do not construe criminal assaults. They certainly do not construe indecent assaults," he told the court.
The case continues.
