‘She had no real option’: Soldier groomed 14-year-old into ‘extremely reluctant’ sexual conduct

Thursday, 25 June 2026

The lawyer for a former soldier who sexually offended against a teenage girl says he will not be able to pursue his army dream with a criminal record.

Nonetheless, Judge Quentin Hix convicted Joshua Ford, 22, of grooming for sex and engaging in sexual conduct with a young person at the Christchurch District Court on Wednesday.

The court heard the victim, who turned 15 days before the incident, went through self-harm and suicidal ideation afterwards, which “opened her eyes to the danger of the adult world”.

Ford – who Stuff reports is the son of a police detective inspector – was 20 when he contacted the teenager on Wizz, a social media app designed for teenagers, in June 2024. Ford had entered a false date of birth to display his age as 17, and the victim, who had input her true age of 14, matched with Ford believing he was a peer.

The interaction moved to Snapchat, where Ford sent her a nude photograph and repeatedly promised to buy her a vape pen in exchange for oral sex. Just after midnight on June 28, 2024, days after she turned 15, they met up in his car after he picked her up in South New Brighton. He drove her to an secluded red-zoned area in Burwood, a spot “away from any immediate help”.

It was there that Ford engaged in sexual activity with his victim, who was “extremely reluctant to be involved” and “felt as though she had no real option”, Judge Hix said.

A defence force spokesperson told The Press Ford was suspended from duty as a Reserve Force soldier on March 18, 2025 and formally discharged from service on May 15, 2026.

“The New Zealand Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force expect the highest levels of integrity by its personnel. Any person that falls short of those standards can expect no place in the organisation.”

The spokesperson had no further comment.

On its website under the heading ‘Criminal Convictions’, the defence force says candidates are assessed on their own circumstances and “the outcomes will vary depending on the history, frequency and seriousness of offending”.

Defence lawyer Anne Stevens, KC, argued her client should be discharged without a conviction.

She pointed to his low risk of reoffending, rehabilitation, remorse and, particularly, the impact a conviction would have on Ford rejoining the army.

Ford, who was discharged as a private due to the offending, would need to present with the “best possible front” to have any chance of reapplying – in other words, not to be convicted.

“He was 20 at the time, he is 22 now, he has got a whole life before him. As older people in this room, we know he is really just setting out – we can see the potential,” the lawyer said.

“It would be a huge handicap for his adult life to have convictions for this offending.”

But prosecutor Tim Bain said the crime was too serious for a discharge without conviction, and the Defence Force would be more interested in Ford’s actions than his record.

“It is not a consequence of conviction … whether he gets back into the Defence Force, it is really whether he can walk the talk.”

Bain acknowledged the impact on the victim, pointing to her mother’s description of an “influx of self-harm and suicidal ideation since the incident”.

While noting a conviction would follow Ford for the rest of his adult life, Judge Hix decided such a sentence was not disproportionate to the gravity of the offending.

Judge Hix did not see the risk a conviction posed to Ford re-enlisting in the army, and said the Defence Force should be focusing on his conduct.

The consequences of Ford’s conviction would be greater than a generic reckless driving charge, but there was a reason for that, the judge said.

“It would be counter-intuitive to say someone’s consequences are increased because they’ve committed a far more serious offence.”

He sentenced Ford to six months’ community detention with a nightly curfew and ordered him to pay the victim $2000 in emotional harm, which he had offered to do.

Ford had already spent more than two years on bail with no issue.