Driver denies hiding camera
A driver at the New Zealand embassy in Washington DC has vehemently denied placing the hidden camera in the bathroom.
Alfred Harold Keating, also known as Fred Keating, is on trial at the Auckland District Court where he denies hiding a camera in a unisex toilet area and attempting to make intimate recordings on July 27, 2017.
Keating was the assistant chief of Navy at Defence headquarters in Wellington before being posted as a defence attache to the embassy.
Yesterday, his defence lawyer Ron Mansfield claimed it was embassy driver and former British police officer, Michael Waller, who placed the hidden camera in the embassy bathroom – and not his client.
Mansfield told the court Waller was absent from his desk around the same time the camera was allegedly placed in the bathroom on July 27, 2017, the same day it was found.
‘‘What you did is go from the defence procurement office, round the back and into the disabled toilet where you placed the camera in the cradle,’’ Mansfield said. Waller replied: ‘‘Absolutely not’’.
Mansfield also accused Waller of placing the camera inside a radiator two or three months earlier.
Waller again denied the allegation.
‘‘You then left the bathroom and went back into the defence procurement office and was back at your computer by 9.07am,’’ Mansfield said.
Waller again denied the allegation, saying it was ‘‘not correct’’.
Earlier yesterday, Talei Ruby, business manager for New Zealand defence in Washington, told the court a BrickHouse security camera, similar to the one Keating allegedly planted, was purchased in 2014 in an attempt to catch a thief stealing petty cash.
At the time, Ruby discussed a plan of action with the then-head of defence and they came up with a plan to set up a hidden camera in the petty cash cupboard.
The camera was set up for a few months, however, the thief wasn’t caught and Waller recovered it and kept it in his locked drawer.
Upon the discovery of the hidden camera in the bathroom on July 27, 2017, Ruby asked Waller where the camera was.
‘‘He [Waller] gave me the camera . . . and it was still in his locked drawer,’’ Ruby said.
Ruby recovered the camera and put it in her locked drawer and spoke to Keating about it.
The trial continues.