Penrith Panther Tyrone May pleads guilty to four charges in sex tape case
A woman who had sex with Panthers star Tyrone May and teammate Liam Coleman was horrified to discover a video of the night in question on the internet several months later. On Friday May admitted to covertly recording the encounter.
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Sidelined Penrith Panthers player Tyrone May has pleaded guilty to filming sex tape without consent.
Tregear resident May pleaded guilty to intentionally recording the four intimate videos without consent during a one-night stand in Coffs Harbour and an orgy at Kingswood respectively.
Prosecutors on Friday withdrew four charges of intentionally disseminating the videos online.
The four videos were recorded during the two consensual sexual encounters in 2018 but leaked online by “unknown parties” in March 2019.
According to the agreed facts, the first encounter took place at the Best Western Zebra Motel on Grafton St, Coffs Harbour on February 9 last year.
May, 23, met the woman on dating app Tinder in January and the two agreed to meet when the footballer was due to visit the north coast town the following month.
Mid-way through consensual sex May’s phone “chimed”, the facts state, causing him to pick it up with the victim describing to police that he “appeared to be texting”.
“The complainant believed the accused has received an SMS message from (May’s friend) and the accused was simply sending a reply message,” the facts state.
“The complainant stated May put his hand across the front of her neck.
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“May put the phone down after about a minute. At no time did (the victim) have cause to believe she was being filmed or otherwise recorded on that mobile device.”
An hour later the pair left to have drinks at The Coffs Hotel before retiring together at May’s hotel room.
They maintained infrequent contact in the months until March 5, 2019, when the victim discovered two videos had emerged on social media from their tryst the year before, the facts state.
Facts state the second victim and the NRL star began talking on Facebook in May 2018, before the Panthers five-eighth invited her to meet with him.
She travelled to a unit complex on Derby St, Kingswood on May 25, stopping at a bottle shop on the way to purchase some alcohol.
After consuming “a number of alcoholic drinks” to the point that she was “well affected by alcohol” she had consensual sex with May and Panthers lower grade player Liam Coleman while a third man sat in the room and “performed a sexual act on himself”, the facts state.
The players had not been drinking because they had training the next day, according to the agreed facts.
“During the course of the sexual acts the complainant performed oral sex on Liam Coleman,” the facts state.
“The complainant became aware there were several mobile phones within the room and remembers saying ‘Don’t be filming’.
“At no stage did the complainant actually see the accused or any other person recording the sexual activity … At no stage did the complainant give anyone consent to record their activities.”
Ten months later on March 2, 2019 she received a private message on Facebook informing her a video of the incident was circulating online.
She watched the footage the next day and recognised herself immediately, the facts state, before reporting the matter in person to Penrith police on March 3.
Two days later on March 5, May walked into Penrith police station of his own free will and was arrested.
May was one of the first players prevented from playing under the NRL’s no-fault stand-down policy.
May, who missed the entire 2019 season but continued to train with the Panthers, will be sentenced on January 31.
He has been part of the Panthers’ pre-season training while he awaited the outcome of his court case.
May is under contract at Penrith until at the end of the 2020 NRL season, but his future will now come under question as the Panthers look at their re-signing priorities and transfer targets.
Attention will now turn to what action the Panthers and the NRL take.
In March last year NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg said: “That is a matter for the courts. The no-fault stand down will remain in force until the court proceedings are concluded.”