A US Air Force officer with an “exemplary service record” may be sent back to America and discharged after he was caught driving a motorbike in Alice Springs just weeks after the court disqualified his driver’s licence.

Pacific Command Sergeant Carlos Alberto Novelo was convicted and fined $1700 in Alice Springs Local Court for driving a motor vehicle while disqualified on Friday. He was also disqualified from driving for a further six months.

The court heard Sgt Novelo was driving a red Honda 125cc when police pulled him over for a random breath test on Barret Drive at 11am on Friday May 27.

He did not return a blood alcohol reading.

He was on his way to deliver a seminar on suicide prevention in the defence force at Commander Major Troy Ruby’s house, according to defence lawyer Murray Preston.

“What has occurred has really put his career at risk,” he said.

“He has spoken to his immediate superiors and it has gone all the way to the top.”

“It affects his whole standing with the Air Force.”

“I would ask your honour to take a course that reflects his excellent behaviour and service out here assisting the Australian people and the American Government.”

Sgt Novelo, 33, has been in the US Air Force since he was 19 years old.

“The Air Force does impose whatever penalties they deem appropriate, which could see him sent back to America and possibly discharged,” Mr Preston said.

The maximum penalty for driving while disqualified is 12 months in prison.

A U.S. military contractor charged with raping and killing a 20-year-old woman in Japan has asked that his trial be moved outside Okinawa, saying he may not receive a fair trial on the southern island where the case has received extensive media coverage and opposition to U.S. bases is high, his lawyer said Wednesday.

Kenneth Shinzato, a former Marine who is a contractor at Kadena Air Base, was arrested in May when the victim's body was found. He has been charged with rape, murder and abandoning the body of the woman.

His lawyer, Toshimitsu Takaesu, said he submitted a request on Monday for the venue to be shifted to Tokyo because a local jury is likely to be prejudiced, and to allow Shinzato a proper translator and mental examination.

"What's most important is for him to have a fair trial," Takaesu said in a telephone interview from his office in Okinawa. "But after massive media coverage, many people already believe he is a bad guy and guilty. Under the circumstances, the verdict is likely to be guilty regardless of the evidence."

He said Shinzato has denied the murder and rape allegations.

In Japan, jury trials are held only in murder and other serious cases.

Japanese authorities have said Shinzato drove around looking for a target before attacking the victim as she was taking a walk at night.

Shinzato, a U.S. citizen from New York who was born Kenneth Gadson, married a Japanese woman on Okinawa and uses her family name. He was in the Marines before working as a contractor.

The case has sparked outrage and rekindled anti-U.S. military sentiment and protests on Okinawa, where residents resent a heavy American troop presence.

Shinzato's case led Tokyo and Washington to announce a plan Tuesday to reduce the number of civilian U.S. base workers covered by the Status of Forces Agreement, or SOFA, which protects service members from Japanese prosecution in case of on-duty or on-base accidents or crimes.

Shinzato is considered outside of the SOFA coverage and has been handled under Japanese criminal justice from the beginning.

More than half of nearly 50,000 American troops stationed in Japan under the Japan-U.S. security treaty are on Okinawa. In terms of space, more than 70 percent of Japan-based U.S. military facilities are on the small island. In 1995, three U.S. servicemen on Okinawa abducted and raped a 12-year-old girl in a case that triggered mass protests and led to an agreement to relocate a key air station to another area of the island. The plan has since stalled because residents want the base removed completely from the island.

Protests against American military presence in Japan continued on Saturday, as the country’s defense minister lodged a formal complaint over the latest case of alleged murder and rape of a young Japanese woman by a US military base employee.

Gen Nakatani visited the US Kadena Air Base on Saturday to formally protest the alleged crime to its commander Lt. Gen. Lawrence Nicholson.

"I deliver a strong message of regret and at the same time make a protest,” he said as cited by the public broadcaster NHK.

Japanese officials including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed outrage over the latest in a string of crimes, which has been poisoning US-Japanese military ties for decades. The country’s Foreign Ministry filed a formal complaint over the case as well.

Critics of the deployment of US troops in Japan complain of the crimes committed by American personnel against local residents, environmental damage done by US bases and other negative sides. Okinawa Island hosts roughly half of all American troops in Japan, and sentiment against the arrangement are especially strong there.

LAWYERS for a United States Marine who allegedly assaul­ted a massage parlour boss have accused the woman of fabricating a story and stealing the ­defendant’s phone in a bid to ensure she got paid.

Matthew Mueller denied allegations he threw Qin “Linda” Zhang to the ground at Pinnacle Massage, on Cavenagh St, in Darwin.

Defence lawyer Tom Berkley said the alleged victim had slipped over as she attempted to run away with his client’s phone during a reported dispute over payment for services.

“I put to you that he wasn’t asking for a refund – he was saying he had already paid and you wanted him to pay again,” he told Ms Zhang. “You took the phone from him ... to make sure you got payment.”

Ms Zhang gave evidence she picked up the mobile phone from a massage room floor after staff summoned her from nearby Nikko Massage to deal with a dispute about 2am on September 20, 2015.

Mueller had been unhappy with his first massage and switched girls, prosecutor Ian Rowbottam said.

Ms Zhang, through a Mandarin inter­preter, told Darwin Magistrate Elizabeth Morris that Mueller demanded a refund as she tried to explain his card had been declined.

She said he demanded she give back his phone, and gave evidence he was verbally abusive before he allegedly grabbed her and threw her to the ground – twice – where she banged her head.

Mr Berkley said: “I suggest to you the only time you hit the ground was when you fell over.”

Ms Zhang said she ran back to Nikko Massage and gave Mueller’s phone to police ­because she wanted them “to catch the guy who hurt me”.

Witness Ying-Yu “Zoe” Chen gave evidence she had seen the alleged assaults.

whatever happened, the message is clear: if it's a Marine's word vs a sex worker,...

A U.S.A. Marine charged with murder testified in court Monday that he choked a Filipino unconscious during a fight that started when he discovered that she was a transgender woman.

Philippine government prosecutors charged Pemberton with murder in December, saying there was "probable cause" that he killed Laude in an attack that "was aggravated by treachery, abuse of superior strength and cruelty." Laude had apparently been strangled and drowned in a toilet bowl.

The case reignited a debate over custody of American military personnel accused of crimes. Washington agreed to move him last year from a U.S. warship to the Philippine military's main camp in metropolitan Manila, where he remained under American custody with an outer ring of Filipino guards.

Activists demanded again on Monday that Pemberton be turned over to Philippine custody, saying the current arrangement "is a continuing affront to our national sovereignty."

Marine Lance Cpl. Jairn Michael Rose, who went out with Pemberton that night, acknowledged that the suspect later confided on their ship that he attacked the woman by choking her after discovering that she was transgender when she undressed, according to the prosecutors.