A woman has told a court-martial the Chief of the Defence Force failed to act when she tried to disclose a relationship with a senior navy officer.
At the court-martial at Trentham Military Camp in the Hutt Valley on Monday, Commodore Kevin Keat has pleaded not guilty to eight charges of breaching the Armed Forces Discipline Act.
Military prosecutors say he was having a relationship with the woman, a Defence Force employee, between 2008 and 2013. Her name is suppressed.
They say he hid the relationship and forced the woman to lie on security clearance forms and to senior officers.
The woman told the hearing that she went to Defence Force chief Rhys Jones, but no one took any action until she complained to vice-chief Tim Keating.
The woman said when she tried to end the relationship, Commodore Keat threatened her and her daughter's military career, saying he would mess with her family. She said she felt blackmailed into continuing the relationship.
But Commodore Keat's lawyer Michael Bott says his client ended the relationship in 2010 - against the woman's wishes - and she is now trying to take revenge through the court process.
The woman denies this and became very upset at the hearing after being told that she must give her evidence without referring to notes.
