Forty-one sexual assault and harassment complaints were lodged in the NZ Defence Force

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11800329

Forty-one sexual assault and harassment complaints were lodged in the NZ Defence Force, including one for sexual violation or rape last year.

This was up 15 on the previous year and the highest figure in 10 years of data released to the Herald under the Official Information Act.

It shows the nature of the complaints, the rank, sex and age of the complainants, and the rank of the alleged offenders, with six officers accused last year.

Most complaints were from women against men but, since a new disclosure system was put in place, it seemed more men were also coming forward with claims they were abused by men in the NZDF.

The numbers showed the biggest spike in the number of complaints happened in the latter half of 2016.

The rise coincided with the implementation of the force’s new restricted disclosure system, which the NZDF said meant the high figures weren’t necessarily because there were more incidents.