Qld: Soldier takes on Army discipline court over mobile phone

AAP General News (Australia)
08-17-2001
Qld: Soldier takes on Army discipline court over mobile phone

By Ainsley Pavey

BRISBANE, Aug 17 AAP - A junior officer has launched legal action to overturn a decision
by the Australian army, which put his career on hold, for unlawfully using a mobile phone.

Lieutenant Randolph Winfried Kasprzyck was stripped of the right to rise up army ranks
after clocking up more than $250 in calls on a phone left behind by a soldier bound for
East Timor.

Lieutenant Kasprzyck, based at Gallipoli Barracks 6th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment
at Enogerra in Brisbane, was caught using the phone in May last year after the father
of phone owner Lieutenant Peter John Ketton received the bill.

The Defence Force Discipline Appeal Tribunal heard the case today after an army magistrate
forced Kasprzyck in February to forfeit his seniority which could delay his career progress
to the rank of captain by seven years.

The hearing was told the army considered the actions of Kasprzyck as a threat to the
trust of Lieutenant Ketton and his comrades back home during Ketton's stint as platoon
commander on the army peacekeeping mission.

Lieutenant Kasprzyck was charged under the Defence Force Discipline Act for unlawfully
obtaining the phone which was left in a pigeon hole at the soldiers' mess because of a
mobile blackout during the military operation in East Timor.

The hearing was told he rang up a bill of $251.30 over two weeks from April 18 to May
4 last year but the bill was sent to Lieutenant Ketton's father, who raised the alarm
with the army.

"The father got the account and all of a sudden the calls stopped," Army prosecutor
Richard Tracey, QC, told the court.

"He was astounded by what he saw. He knew his son was in East Timor so he contacted
the unit and that's what set things in train."

The court heard Lieutenant Kasprzyck put $150 under Lieutenant Ketton's pillow at the
barracks with a note and the phone before military police were called in to investigate.

Lieutenant Ketton had left the phone behind for his sister to pick up but Lieutenant
Kasprzyck said he took it for security reasons in place of his own which was not working.

The five-hour hearing before Justices Peter Heerey, Peter Underwood and Dean Mildren
was told Lieutenant Ketton was happy to loan the phone but it was taken without asking.

Justice Mildren, who described the case as having a "flavour of dishonesty", joked
about the possibility of Lieutenant Kasprzyck ringing up Lieutenant General Peter Cosgrove
to ask him to pass on a request to use the mobile.

The court has reserved the decision on the case until next month.

AAP ap/jnb/vr/de

KEYWORD: TIMOR PHONE

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