The ex-wife of a top NRL star acted like a “concerned mother” when she sent pornographic photographs of her ex-partner and his new wife to a friend after her children were exposed to the images, a man has been told. court.
The woman faced Sydney’s Downing Center Local Court on Friday during the final day of her hearing as she fights charges of distributing and recording revenge pornography featuring her ex-husband.
The court was told the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, became aware of the pornographic photographs and videos when her children and two friends located them on an iPad in October last year.
Police allege the woman illegally “recorded” the videos and images of the sex acts without the consent of the NRL star or his new partner.
But the woman’s defense lawyer, Christopher Cole, urged Magistrate Glenn Bartley to investigate the woman’s circumstances at the time.
The ex-wife (pictured) of an NRL star acted like a “concerned mother” when she sent pornographic photos of her ex-partner and his new wife to a friend.
“In the circumstances at the time she is pressured, if I can put it that way, by (the other mother) to show the image,” Cole said Friday.
‘The defendant says…’I was a worried mother, I did what any other mother would have done in those circumstances.’
As the woman sat at the front of the public gallery, Cole urged the court to commit to morality, common sense and common experience.
He told the court that the “reasonably acceptable person” was not a lawyer or magistrate but rather “parents with young children exposed to pornography.”
“The other, more consistent and plausible explanation is that she is a concerned mother,” he said of the woman.
During the hearing in August last year, the woman told the court she found “several images and videos of sexual intercourse”, including the NRL star “digitally penetrating” his new partner and “various sexual positions”, on the iPad. .
The woman had been making breakfast for her two children and their friends when she saw them huddled around the iPad and heard them “oh-ing and ah-ing.”
A friend of her young son then showed her the iPad, which the court was told belonged to her son and which she normally used at her ex-husband’s house.
The woman (pictured), who cannot be identified for legal reasons, appeared in court on Friday as she fights charges of distributing and recording revenge porn featuring her ex-husband.
An image on the iPad showed her ex-husband’s new partner “naked” with her “breasts showing”, posing “in a way that covered” her genitals, the court was told.
During questioning by police prosecutor Craig Pullen in August, the woman broke down in tears when asked if the photographs were her property.
“It is not my property, but when it comes to my house, my two very young children are witnesses of pornographic images and domestic violence,” the woman said through tears.
‘I have a duty as a mother, and to other children in my care, to protect them.’
She told the court she took photographs of the images on the iPad because she was worried about what her children might be witnessing when they were in their father’s care.
The woman denied suggestions by Senior Sergeant Pullen that the children could have seen just one image on the iPad and told the court she saw them “swiping” through the photos.
She told the court that she sent a screenshot to the parents of one child in an attempt to “apologize profusely” and explain the situation, as she felt she had a “duty” to inform the children’s mother “what was the content”.
The woman told the court she took photographs of the images on the iPad because she “had concerns” about what her children might be witnessing when in their father’s care.
Cole told the court Friday that the other mother had asked her friend to send her the images the children had seen so she could discuss the content with them.
It is not disputed that the woman sent the photographs to her friend, but she defends it by claiming that it was “reasonable” for her to record and distribute the images.
The court was told the woman had sent a message to her ex-husband and new partner after discovering the images, saying she had everything “registered”.
“If the children or I do anything wrong, this will be in court,” the court was told in the message.
The woman faces one count of intentionally distributing an intimate image without consent and another of intentionally recording an intimate image without consent.
Under new NSW laws dealing with revenge porn, a number of “exceptions” can be used as a defence.
These include whether “a reasonable person would find the defendant’s conduct acceptable” when he allegedly distributed the images.
The court must determine the nature and content of the material, “the circumstances” in which it was recorded and the degree to which the privacy of the alleged victims was affected.