Police have reportedly compiled a ‘hit list’ of Richmond stars they want to question over the club’s topless photo scandal
Police have reportedly compiled a ‘hit list’ of Richmond stars they want to question over the club’s topless photo scandal.
The phone records of a group of Tigers players could be scrutinised to find who shared the image of a half-naked woman wearing a 2017 AFL premiership medal.
‘That will prove who has seen the photo and shared the photo – you can’t hide the evidence trail,’ a source close to the investigation told the Herald Sun.
The young woman involved is reportedly ‘distraught’ and has told police she is a victim of revenge porn.
It is believed the woman willingly posed for the photo, but she alleges it was shared online and via text message without her consent after the player involved told her it had been deleted from his phone.
The image doesn’t show the woman’s face, nor is the medal owner identified.
This controversial photo also emerged week, showing a nude woman in front of a Richmond logo
A second controversial photo emerged this week, showing a nude woman with her back to the camera in front of a Richmond logo.
The model in that picture said her friends in professional sports circles have mistaken her for the woman in the premiership medal photo.
‘They [sporting celebrities] know me personally and they are asking me why I have caused this uproar,’ she told the Herald Sun.
‘They think I’m the woman with the breasts with the medallion.’
She wouldn’t say if a Richmond player was involved in taking the photo she featured in. That image is not under investigation.
On her Instagram page, the woman describes herself as an Italian model who lives in Melbourne.
Police confirmed on Tuesday that the first photo was being investigated, but refused to elaborate.
The Richmond Football Club said on Wednesday it will fully co-operate with the investigation.
Richmond Tigers fans cheer on their team as they defeat Adelaide in the 2017 AFL Grand Final
‘We feel very strongly about the positive role of women at our club and in sport generally,’ a statement read.
‘[We] are committed to creating an environment where women can thrive.’
It is unclear when the two images were captured, but they both emerged in the days following the Tigers’ Grand Final victory over Adelaide on September 30.
Victoria’s Attorney General Martin Pakula said it’s something that just shouldn’t happen.
‘People need to be very, very careful in distributing images of people other than themselves,’ Mr Pakula told 3AW on Wednesday.
‘Particularly when they may have given people the impression they have deleted those images.’
The premiership medals are seen after the 2017 AFL Grand Final at the MCG last month
Health Minister Jill Hennessy said it was a great fear of parents that their daughters will be exploited in this way.
‘It seems we’ve got all this technology now but we don’t have the social manners about what is acceptable and not acceptable,’ she told reporters.
‘It’s a matter that should be treated very seriously and there should be very harsh deterrents to anyone that seeks to humiliate a person like that.’
If convicted, the person who sent the premiership medal image could face up to two years behind bars under Victoria’s ‘sexting’ laws.