Hunt to find fiend behind AFL nudes file

The search is on to uncover the “grubby” creator of a dossier of explicit images as police reveal what will be key to bringing the perpetrator to justice.

Police need one of the 45 AFL players caught up in the nude photo scandal to lay a formal complaint so it can begin a hunt to bring to justice the fiend behind the shocking picture file. The Herald Sun on Wednesday revealed the AFL had launched its own investigation into the explicit dossier after being notified by several clubs this week.

The league alerted police from multiple states of the dozens of images, purportedly of players including footy legends, being shared “illegally and without consent”.

But on Thursday, Victoria Police said it had not received a complaint from any of the footballers who were exposed in the Google drive of images, which also contains screenshots from private messages purportedly from the sportsmen.

Nude images of players were shared illegally and without consent.

It comes as Brownlow medallist Jimmy Bartel on Thursday called for the “grubby” creator of the file to be caught.

“It’s gross – a majority of images are fake, made up, staged,” he said on 3AW.

“It’s someone grubby who will hopefully get caught.

“This is a criminal matter now.”

It comes as a South Australian player, who was named in the file but said the photo purporting to be him was a fake, said he plans to make an official complaint to SA Police.

SA Police confirmed it would investigate any matters reported to them.

The footballer, who has now retired, said although the photo of him was not genuine, the ordeal had taken a toll.

Sharing explicit content of a person without their consent was made a crime under Victoria’s sexting and revenge porn legislation in 2014 and carries a penalty of up to two years’ prison.

Cyber-safety expert and former police officer Susan McLean said it would be “very easy” to track down the creator of the file, and anyone who shared it.

“Every time you use technology you leave a trace behind so police can, under a warrant, seize devices, get phone records and put in legal requests to Google,” Ms McLean said.

Port Adelaide player Zak Butters said: “It’s definitely disappointing especially when some of them aren’t the actual person or true as well and probably the effects on family and friends.”

Although posting of the images is a serious offence and, in this case, may have dozens of victims, it is understood no one has yet come forward to Victorian investigators wanting them to take action.

Zak Butters says the leaked images are ‘definitely disappointing especially when some of them aren’t the actual person or true’. Picture: Mark Stewart

It is understood this may be because those featured in the images fear their embarrassment will be compounded if they take the issue further and the matter ends up in the justice system.

It is also possible some of the pictures are “deep fakes” created using cyber publishing technology.

Ms McLean said it was still an offence to share the images, even if they are deemed fakes.

“The definition includes actual and purported to be – it covers deepfake and cartoons,” Ms McLean said.

If the images are genuine, it is unclear how whoever put together the file came to be in possession of so many explicit images of players.

One possibility is that they were tricked into sending compromising mobile phone pictures by frauds who use women as bait in a practice known as “sextortion”.

Such tactics are regularly used by criminal syndicates who then tell victims that the embarrassing images will go online unless they pay hefty cash ransoms.

Those who don’t pay run the risk of the images being posted for the world to see and those who do pay are often bled dry by more demands for cash.

It is understood no ransom demands were made of the players involved.

The file had been widely shared across social media but by Thursday morning the images had been removed from the Google drive.

Originally published as Hunt to find fiend behind AFL nudes file