Wounded secret agent gets resentenced over breaches

AUCKLAND: A former New Zealand Defence Force ‘‘secret agent’’ who was wounded in action has been resentenced after stealing sensitive operational material by using his security clearance.

But the judges who have overseen his case have been sympathetic to the soldier’s ‘‘hostile war service in highly sensitive areas’’ and have called on the Government to assist in his recovery.

Corporal Richard Graham was convicted on appeal by Justice Anne Hinton in January for charges relating to burglary, offering to supply drugs, possession of a psychoactive product and possession of a controlled drug.

Last October, police appealed District Court Judge Belinda Pidwell’s decision to discharge him without conviction.

Graham then appealed Justice Hinton’s decision to the Court of Appeal but was turned away in May.

Yesterday, the 33yearold war veteran was resentenced to six months’ community detention and 12 months’ supervision by Judge Kevin Glubb in the Waitakere District Court.

His offending occurred in September 2016, when the enlisted man was living and working at the Whenuapai Air Force base.

Graham entered the base’s communications building and force protection unit’s building where he took laptops and operationally sensitive items worth $200,000, the court heard yesterday.

Between 2011 and 2015, Graham served in a specialist intelligence role as an active operative, but his unit and the nature of its operations during that time remain suppressed.

However, The New Zealand Herald revealed Graham was deployed to East Timor twice as part of Operation Koru, NZDF information obtained under the Official Information Act shows.

The NZDF confirmed Graham has been dishonourably discharged as a result of his offending.

The burglaries occurred on three separate occasions in August and September 2016 when Graham used his security clearance to access the two buildings, court documents read.

He stole electronics from a storeroom which contained the operationally sensitive equipment, and also took equipment and tools.

During the investigation into the burglaries, police searched Graham’s home and a storage unit. Inside, 10 BZP pills were found in a safe in Graham’s home, while in the storage unit police located two containers with 391g of a psychoactive molecular mimic of LSD.

Police also found two cellphones which were seized and examined. On the phones, police identified communications relating to the supply or trading of methamphetamine.

Judge Pidwell had accepted Graham’s use of methamphetamine was to ‘‘selfmedicate for stress’’ suffered as a result of his deployment. — NZME