For years the soldier travelled on white nationalist internet forums, praising Hitler and recording podcasts about fostering fascism in New Zealand.

Maybe it went unnoticed. Maybe it was of little concern at the time.

But this changed after the March 15 terror attack, when the same far-Right ideology motivated the murder of 51 Muslim worshippers in two Christchurch mosques.

Eight months after the attack, police officers closed in on a small, mint-coloured weatherboard home in a housing area outside the Linton Military Camp – and arrested a 27-year-old soldier. 

Two months later, the soldier faces the military court, a powerful and opaque justice system which has hidden him and his alleged crime from public view. 

He has been charged with accessing a computer system for a dishonest purpose and for disclosing information that prejudiced the security or defence of New Zealand. It is not known who he supplied the information to.

The second charge – posing a threat to New Zealand's security – has serious implications. Stuff has revealed the soldier was well networked in far-Right circles, which in our globalised world span continents. The soldier's own nationalist group claimed to have met their cohorts in Australia.

Yet important questions have so far gone unanswered. What information did the soldier allegedly access? Who was it shared with, and why? How was he able to access such information, while acting as a voice for a white nationalist group online?

Here's what we know.

FAR-RIGHT CONNECTION UNCOVERED

The attacks on both the Al Noor mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch were well planned.

The 28-year-old Australian accused, who now awaits trial on 51 counts of murder, had for years engaged with the "identitarian" brand of far-Right nationalism online, travelled to countries with history that fed his ideology, and donated money to nationalist groups.

In New Zealand, a group that had been plastering similar nationalist messages around Auckland and Wellington responded quickly to the attack. The 'Dominion Movement' wiped itself off the internet, taking down its website. 

But a network of anti-fascist activists, galvanised by the attack, had been watching the group for some time. The soldier was one of its leaders.

Stuff has seen images showing the soldier attending a "free speech" rally at Parliament in July 2018, with a small group that includes one well-known white nationalist.

A trail of online accounts and posting, linked to the soldier's name and known aliases, shows he was seeking to connect with other white nationalists as early as 2011 on the neo-Nazi internet forum "Stormfront".

The soldier has also been revealed by Stuff to be behind the online pseudonym Johann Wolfe. Under this alias he released a series of podcasts, no longer found online.

He was also interviewed by the Australian alt-Right podcast station The Convict Report, produced by white nationalist group The Dingoes – which also shut down after the March 15 attack. 

"We focus on the positives rather than the negatives: the love of our own culture and our own heritage, instead of what we hate about other races – which is an easy trap to fall into," he said on the podcast.

He openly shared derisive views about Māori, described himself as the co-founder of the Dominion Movement, and discussed recruiting other young men into the outfit – but did not mention his employment as a soldier. 

The connection was exposed after his arrest, when a far-Right Christian group based in Palmerston North, Wargus Christi, asked for prayers for one of their "boys" being detained in military custody.

On December 18, the Defence Force confirmed a soldier had been arrested by police and was in military custody.

THE SOLDIER

The soldier, who has name suppression, had come under the microscope months before his arrest, Stuff understands. He had been questioned by police after the March 15 terror attacks – why is unclear.

The 27-year-old was born and raised in Waikato. He has two siblings. 

 He was recruited by the Defence Force five years ago, and has held two roles in the army. He remains employed, but his job title has been suppressed. 

A source close to the family has said the beginnings of his far-Right views were evident in his teen years, but the depth of his beliefs  was only apparent after his arrest. His family has no association with far-Right groups. 

In the podcast, he describes his own entry into far-Right ideology, saying he found solace in online humour after feeling "beaten over the head" for being white.