NRL star’s ex-wife charged with distributing revenge porn

The ex-wife of a top NRL star has been charged with recording and distributing ‘revenge porn’ after she found images and videos of her former husband and his new partner on a shared computer drive.

The ex-wife of a top NRL star is facing a potential three-year jail term after she was charged with distributing and recording revenge porn featuring the big name player having sex with his new partner.

The Sunday Telegraph has learned the player — who has represented his country — made a complaint to police in October accusing his ex of threatening to distribute the compromising material.

Police will allege in court that the woman became aware of the pornographic pictures and videos when a friend of her young child accidentally located them on her iPad at her home.

The iPad featured a shared cloud account that was set up when the pair were married and is still linked to another device the player now uses to store sex pictures and videos.

It will also be alleged in court the woman became enraged upon discovering the existence of the drive because the iPad was used by her children, and contacted the NRL star to tell him the images were disgusting.

None of the parties involved can be identified due to laws around revenge porn offences.

During the conversation, police will allege in court that the woman threatened to distribute the material.

Police raided the woman’s home on October 21 and will allege in court that detectives discovered — while searching one of her devices — that she had forwarded an excerpt of the sexual material to a third party.

It will also be alleged in court by police that she also illegally “recorded” videos and images of the sex acts without the consent of the player or his new partner.

The woman is set to contest the charges and will claim in court that she texted some of the material to the parent of the child who discovered it in an attempt to apologise and explain the situation.

Neither the player, his ex or his new partner can be identified because of laws preventing the identification of alleged victims of revenge porn.

The details of the case can now be revealed after a court non-publication order ­covering the entire matter was lifted this week, after an application by lawyers representing The Sunday ­Telegraph.

The woman’s case was heard in court this week where she is facing one charge of intentionally distributing an intimate image without consent and another of intentionally recording an intimate image without consent.

Each of the offences carries a maximum penalty of three years in jail and an $11,000 fine.

In court, her lawyer Christopher Cole entered pleas of not guilty to both of the charges.

At a November 15 hearing, police prosecutors withdrew one charge of threatening to distribute an intimate image without consent.

According to court documents, police allege the woman “intentionally” distributed one image of the footballer having sex with his partner between 1.11pm and 6.51pm on October 17.

The woman was charged under an amendment to the NSW Crimes Act in 2017 to deal with the proliferation of smart phones and their capacity to distribute images.

Under the new laws, courts can also order “reasonable steps” be taken to “recover, delete or destroy images taken or distributed without consent.”

Failure to do so could result in an additional two-year jail sentence and a $5500 fine on top of the existing penalties.