Burnside councillor Julian Carbone deletes Instagram account

A Burnside councillor has deleted an Instagram account at the centre of a scandal over an inappropriate message sent to a teenage girl.

A Burnside councillor has taken down his Instagram account – claiming he was hacked – after it was revealed it had allegedly been used to send an inappropriate message to an underage girl and was also following a number of females claiming to be teenagers.

Following allegations Julian Carbone’s official Instagram account messaged a teenager inappropriately about her wearing a bikini, Mr Carbone told The Advertiser he apologised for the “misunderstanding”.

It comes as Burnside Council on Tuesday heard a call for Cr Carbone to resign as colleagues voted to investigate the costs ratepayers incurred investigating the scandal. Cr Henry Davis told Tuesday’s meeting he believed the embattled Cr Carbone should quit before a unanimous vote was carried demanding a public apology and ordering Cr Carbone to attend training on social media use and the council’s social media policies.

Cr Mike Daws told the meeting he believed a resignation was unnecessary.

An investigation by The Advertiser revealed Mr Carbone was following at least six other female accounts whose biographies describe them as being teenagers, including one as young as 16.

Other accounts followed by juliancarboneburnsidecouncil includes one advertising herself as an exquisite Asian model, and another with a woman wearing lingerie claiming to be “your dad’s favourite instahoe”.

An Advertiser investigation has revealed Burnside councillor Julian Carbone was following the above account on Instagram.

One of the accounts followed by Julian Carbone’s Instagram account.

Another account Mr Carbone follows has a biography description that claims she is single, and looking for a “loving and caring man who will love me and take care of me”.

He denied knowing of the identities of the people attached to the accounts he follows.

“They are fairly random, they are fairly weird, they’re certainly not known to me but at the time I would’ve seen their handle with their little profile photo saying this account is following you, so I follow back,” he said.

“Moving forward, that’s probably not the best approach because I just always assumed that all those accounts were residents.”

Then on Tuesday evening, he posted an “Instagram update” on his councillor Facebook page.

“Hi everyone, as my Instagram page had become overrun and riddled with FAKE PROFILES, all of which I had nothing to do with, I’ve made to (sic) conscious decision to remove my account.

“I am very passionate about increasing resident engagement so I will continue to liaise with you via my normal council Facebook page.”

Earlier, Cr Carbone said of the 1400 Instagram accounts he was following, hundreds must have unfollowed him.

Cr Carbone said it had been an emotional two days, and he had received “nasty messages” and even shut down his LinkedIn account to “lay low”.

“This has been terrible, I’m married, I’ve got a baby … this does not make me look good, there’s lots of questions and it’s an embarrassment for the whole family,” he said.

It is alleged his official account messaged a 17-year-old girl “lots of bikini photos – but it’s so damn cold at the moment hey” on the social media platform in November.

Many of the accounts claimed to be run by teenagers.

Burnside councillor Julian Carbone.

“It was that one-off comment, it was all to do with being at the beach when it was cold. Yes, OK, the word bikini probably added a bit of spice to things, had I said ‘so many beach photos’ it probably wouldn’t have been as bad,” he said.

“There’s been a lot of very nasty things said that were not called for. Was the comment inappropriate? Yes, was there anything else inferred or any other sinister or dodgy motives? Absolutely not.”

He said he did not recall sending the message, and said it was a misunderstanding, or potential computer hacking.

Some of the accounts claimed to be run by teenagers as young as 16.

An Advertiser investigation has revealed Burnside councillor Julian Carbone was following the above account on Instagram.

Other accounts were older teenagers.

Cr Carbone met his now wife Angela online in 2020.

He took to Facebook on Monday, thanking the community for its support, and said he would not stand down from his position as councillor.

“It was a massive misunderstanding, it was never intended to be sent to her, I wish she had perhaps reached out to me directly and queried it … because in five seconds I would’ve cleared up the misunderstanding,” he said.

“It was sent in error, I’m sorry for that and I would’ve loved to have clarified the whole situation.”

In an article published by The Advertiser on Cr Carbone’s recent nuptials at Mt Osmond Golf Club last month, he said he and Angela met in mid-2020, and he had proposed in front of their entire family in December of that year.

Cr Carbone was not present at Tuesday’s meeting.

He said he would make a public apology at the next scheduled meeting later this month.