A senior navy officer facing court martial over allegations of encouraging a junior to kiss her on the cheeks at a bar during an overseas operation in 2023 has been found not guilty of doing an act to prejudice service discipline

She can now be named as the former Ship Commander of HMNZS Canterbury, Bronwyn Heslop.

Heslop, who spent 36 years in the Navy, is currently in the role of Military Maritime Operation Orders – Instructions and Procedures – after Commander Wayne Andrew took on the role of Ship Commander for HMNZS Canterbury in September 2025.

The charge under the Armed Forces Discipline Act, which includes any act likely to bring discredit on the service of the Armed Forces, carries a penalty of up to two years imprisonment.

A panel of three senior military officers, acting as a jury would in a civilian court, delivered their unanimous verdict of “not guilty” on Wednesday morning, after more than five hours of deliberation across Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, at the Court Martial sitting at the Devonport Naval Base in Auckland.

Judge William Hastings declined to grant Heslop name suppression earlier this week, but suppressions had to remain in place after her lawyer signalled an appeal.

However, Heslop’s lawyer told the Court Martial that Wednesday’s verdict meant they no longer had grounds for an appeal and that no appeal would be filed.

Judge Hastings lifted the interim order, which allows media to name Heslop.

On Monday, both the former junior officer who was allegedly encouraged to kiss the senior officer, as well as Heslop, took the witness stand.

The alleged interaction happened in Fiji in March 2023, when the junior officer first joined HMNZS Canterbury, and officers were given leave for a few days after docking and were drinking at a bar in town at night.

The former junior officer, who was the sole witness for the prosecution, said the senior officer first caught the attention of him and another junior officer when she tapped on a glass pane and gestured for a kiss through the other side of the glass, and later gestured for them to come inside the bar and tapped on her cheeks to gesture for a kiss.

Heslop denied seeking a kiss on the cheek from the junior officer, and said her level of intoxication was two on a scale of zero to ten, with zero being sober, when they arrived at the bar.

Another navy officer called as a defence witness said they’d spent the majority of that night with Heslop and did not see her with the junior officer.

The former junior officer, during cross-examination by the accused’s lawyer, conceded that he didn’t tell the whole truth when first approached by the military police in August 2024, as he didn’t think he’d be taken seriously and was worried his career would be affected if he spoke up.

Under cross-examination by the defence lawyer, he admitted alcohol affected his memory of some events of the night, but was adamant he had a clear memory of the alleged core interaction with Heslop.

Heslop in 1998 became the first female officer to be in charge of a Royal New Zealand Navy vessel, when she took command of HMNZS Moa.

‘Right decision’

Heslop’s lawyer Matthew Hague told RNZ the officer had always maintained her innocence, and the unanimous decision by the military panel to dimiss the charge was the right decision.

“Commander Heslop has given 36 years of committed service to the Royal New Zealand Navy and New Zealand, and this process has taken an immense toll on her and her family

“I question the decision of the Defence Force to bring these charges,” he said.

When asked about the impact on Heslop’s career, Hague said the process had been difficult, but she was innocent of all the allegations and looked forward to returning to her career.

Heslop had continued her career over the years since the alleged acts, Hague said.

The military prosecutors have declined to comment.

The New Zealand Defence Force has been approached for comment.

Perceived lack of evidence from prosecution

During the military panel’s deliberations on Wednesday morning, they asked Judge Hastings whether it was appropriate to draw “inferences” from the absence of prosecution’s evidence to prove the alleged interaction.

Their question referred to evidence heard in court that there were 60 people at the bar on the night of the alleged interaction, that the junior officer had another officer with him at the time, and that there was a table of officers near Commander Heslop at the bar, telling the judge that it seemed “implausible” that nobody else observed or corroborated any part of the core interaction.

Judge Hastings told the panel that the question of what inferences to draw from evidence presented was a matter for their judgment.

“An inference is a conclusion drawn from facts you accept as reliably established. It is not a guess, not speculation, whether you draw this conclusion is for you to decide,” he said.

The panel returned the verdict within an hour of hearing the judge’s answer to their question.

On Tuesday, Judge Hastings told the military panel that they needed to be sure on whether the Crown had proved beyond reasonable doubt that the senior officer encouraged the junior officer to kiss them, and if so, did they intend to encourage him, did they know they were acting improperly, and was the conduct in the circumstances likely to prejudice service discipline.

Judge Hastings said the answer would need to be yes to all the questions for a member to return a guilty verdict.

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