Top New Zealand navy officer accused of hiding camera in embassy toilet

Wellington: A high-ranking New Zealand military officer has been accused of hiding a camera in a bathroom at the nation’s embassy in Washington in a case that has raised unusual jurisdictional questions.

Alfred Keating was a Navy commodore and the embassy’s senior defence attaché at the time of the incident last July. He would have been eligible to claim diplomatic immunity from being prosecuted by US authorities. But the case was handled by New Zealand police, who travelled to Washington to investigate.

A New Zealand judge on Friday dismissed an appeal by Keating to have his name and other personal details suppressed.

Keating, who has returned to New Zealand, has been charged with attempting to make an intimate visual recording. If convicted, he faces a maximum 18 months in prison.