Mitchell Pearce has come to Latrell Mitchell’s defence in the wake of the footy superstar’s white powder scandal.
The NRL Integrity Unit has launched an investigation after a leaked photograph seemed to depict the injured Rabbitohs fullback leaning over a table with his right hand near an unknown white substance and his left hand up to his face.
The grainy image, which was taken after the footy player did community work in Dubbo over the weekend, appears to show Mitchell with an unidentified woman.
Former footy star Pearce, a reformed addict, and fellow ex-footy bad boy Todd Carney spoke on the Half-Time podcast, with Pearce insisting Mitchell is not the main culprit for the scandal.
Pearce has endured his own experience of footage of himself shared on social media without his permission. In 2016, he was banned for eight matches after a leaked video showed him simulating a vile act with a dog.
‘I hope someone comes down hard on the person who’s filming these things,’ Pearce said.
‘It would be good to know what the laws are around this because it’s bulls–t. You’d hope it’s not his mate, but whoever was in there and doing that stuff needs big repercussions.
‘The game needs to find out who these people are and go hard on them. They should name and shame them because these people get away with murder and there’s no repercussions.
Latrell Mitchell is not the main culprit in the white powder scandal, a footy legend says
Mitchell is reportedly being investigated over an image (pictured) that appears to show him bending over a table with an unknown white substance in front of him
‘Poor Latrell will put his hand up and say he’s done the wrong thing, but the other person who filmed it needs to be named and shamed and have their photo on the back page.
‘It’s a horrible feeling right now to be Latrell and to have this stuff surface.
‘I feel for him, but at the same time, if he’s done this then he’s put himself in an average position, hasn’t he?
‘It’s not good for the game and it’s not good for Latrell. No one knows what that white substance was, so it’s hard to comment on that, but it’s not good for the game and it’s not good for Souths with the year that they’ve had.’
Carney added that he hopes Mitchell has the right people around him to navigate this tricky period.
‘It’s a horrible feeling being on the back page at the best of times for anything, but it’s just sad to see because while we don’t know if he’s done the wrong thing or not, it’s sad to see the privacy broken again for a sports player,’ the former five-eighth said.
But reformed bad boy Mitchell Pearce (right) has urged the NRL to ‘come down hard’ on the person who filmed the controversial video
‘People listening will be saying ‘they shouldn’t have done the wrong thing’ but if he’s in an environment with his mates or whatever, by the looks of it, someone has taken it from a distance.
‘For Latrell, it’s obviously going to have massive ramifications on him. He’s one of the biggest stars of our game … so there’ll be a lot of eyes on him for that.
‘My worry is now for Latrell and how he handles it, what he does in the next 24 hours and if he comes out and owns it or shies away from it. That’s the concern for a player because we’re all human and we make mistakes.
‘Hopefully, Latrell has enough support around him over the next 24 hours to two weeks because they won’t leave him alone until they get a story. I’m going to stick up for Latrell, and hopefully he’s all right.’
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