The Star: March 04, 2021

The Star Thursday March 4 2021
8
NEWS
• By Anna Leask
A CHRISTCHURCH woman
spent thousands of dollars on
civil court action to get a sex
tape removed from the internet
after it was posted without her
permission.
In spite of winning the case,
police – who have been investigating
for six months – are yet to
decide whether the man will face
criminal charges for publishing
footage and photos on multiple
porn websites behind the
woman’s back.
The devastated woman spoke
out about her ordeal in a bid to
dissuade others from posting
intimate recordings without
consent – and to encourage
women subjected to similar
“horrific” betrayals to take
action.
She says she has no shame
around her sexual choices, but
the man had humiliated and disempowered
her and she would
not stand for it.
The pair met in September
2019 and soon after he asked
to film them while they were
having sex.
The woman was initially
hesitant and said no – but agreed
after he assured her no one else
would ever see it.
She said they never discussed
posting it anywhere and she
never would have agreed to that.
The pair had a casual relationship,
which ended amicably in
October 2019.
“I forgot about the video, and I
forgot about him,” she said.
In early August 2020 a friend
messaged the woman and alerted
her to a video on Porn Hub –
posted under a username that
the man often used on social
media with his photo.
Multiple versions of the video
were published with explicit and
lewd descriptions of the content,
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Revenge porn victim’s fight to remove sex tape;
DEVASTATED: The woman was alerted to her sex tape being online by a friend.
including that the woman was
from Christchurch.
“I recognised myself immediately,”
she said.
“I felt sick. My heart was racing,
my chest felt tight.”
She messaged the man immediately,
saying she’d never
consented to him sharing the
footage and asking him to take
it down.
“I can do whatever I want
with them. Nobody knows our
identity,” he replied.
PHOTO: GEORGE HEARD
The woman contacted Netsafe
but ultimately had to contact
each website carrying her image
herself and apply for the content
to be removed.
It has been live for almost a
year and had more than 35,000
views.
In August last year, she complained
to police, filing a formal
statement that same month.
She followed up “several times”
but there was no movement and
in October, desperate to ensure
the man would not re-post the
footage, filed a civil case.
In court, the man admitted
his actions and consented to an
order to take down or disable
the material and to never post it
again.
“The ordeal has caused me
extreme distress, anxiety, guilt,
shame and distrust,” the woman
told Judge Tony Gilbert.
“I have no words to describe
the hurt and upset.”
The woman provided Judge
Gilbert’s decision to the Herald
on Sunday.
“I can well understand [the
woman’s] upset at what has
occurred because while she
consented to the intimate visual
recordings being made, she very
certainly did not consent to
them being splashed about the
internet,” the judge said.
He also ordered the man to
pay the woman $1700 towards
her legal costs – but to date not a
cent has been paid.
The day the civil case was
resolved the woman went back
to police.
“I was p****d off by then. I just
wanted someone to do something,”
she said.
Weeks later a detective called
the woman and asked her to
provide documentation that she
had already given to police via
email and on a USB drive.