Wellington barrister Christopher Griggs told Stuff that the soldier being on "open arrest", and not held in jail, did not lessen the severity of the allegations he faced. 

"For a member of the armed forces to use information that they've been given in confidence to prejudice the security or defence of New Zealand, that's a big deal," he said. 

Griggs, who has two decades of experience in the military court but no involvement in the case, said the soldier could possibly have access to weapons, and to army publications which could include tactics, techniques, procedures, and plans for major national events.

"If you have [a group] like the Dominion Movement ... they might think it's kind of handy to get their hands on information which shows them how the New Zealand Defence Force conducts operations because they might want to use those sorts of things themselves," he said.

"There's a whole load of information which an organisation that is intent on the use of violence to achieve its ends might find useful."

CHECKS AND BALANCES

There is no indication he was considered a high risk to the public, but how he was first noticed by authorities remains unknown. 

Stuff has revealed that detectives have been gathering information on the soldier's background and connections to the far-Right, telling family and his close associates they are investigating on behalf of the Combined Threat Assessment Group (CTAG).

CTAG is a multi-agency group, led by the Security Intelligence Service (SIS) and including the Defence Force and police. The group is responsible for assessing terrorism threats to New Zealand and its interests.

All three agencies remain tight lipped about the case.

Speaking to reporters at Parliament this month, SIS director Rebecca Kitteridge would not comment on the arrest of the soldier, or her agency's involvement. Similarly, she would not be drawn on whether any planned terror attacks had been intercepted by security agencies. 

"I won't comment on any specific issues involving individuals," she said.

"If we were ever to see specific attack planning, we would be working with police immediately to disrupt that."

But she broadly described how the SIS had investigated hundreds of "leads" on people who posed concerns after the March 15 terror attacks. 

Some 30 to 50 people are being investigated by the agency at any one time, she said, and only a small number are deemed of high or medium risk, requiring further investigation. 

The spy agencies were criticised after March 15 for a claimed failure to consider the risk of far-Right extremism. Kitteridge has said the agencies can't monitor the whole internet, but it does appear that groups such as the 'Dominion Movement' have become a focus for her agency.

"There are some people in New Zealand who have got really extremist views ... It isn't one specific group or anything like that but there are particular ideologies, you could describe it as identitarianism, there are neo-Nazis," she said at Parliament recently.. 

"They're not all one group and they tend to live online and they tend to live in encrypted chat rooms. So very, very challenging for law enforcement and intelligence agencies."

The soldier had for years been inhabiting white national circles online. Within weeks of his arrest, both activists and journalists were able to build a detailed picture of the kind of material the SIS would describe as a "lead".

But was anything missed when he was recruited into the army? The Defence Force, citing the ongoing prosecution, has declined to answer questions about the vetting of the soldier, or how it inspects recruits for extremist ideology. 

A written statement from a Defence spokeswoman said all of the organisation's staff must hold a national security clearance, which means all are vetted by the SIS. 

The vetting guidelines allow the SIS to dig into the employee's life, and all available information is considered.

External loyalties, influence and associations are inspected, along with personal relationships, a person's finances, alcohol and drug use, mental health and criminal history. 

"Of particular note is the requirement that, 'the candidate possesses and demonstrates an appropriate level of integrity, that is, a soundness of character and moral principle'," the spokeswoman said. 

While the soldier and authorities build their case, the public will have to wait and see whether the answers to these questions will be revealed.