The woman at the centre of Tim Paine’s sexting scandal didn’t report the incident to Cricket Tasmania until seven months after it occurred – when they laid formal charges against her for allegedly stealing.
Details of the lewd messages emerged on Friday afternoon, prompting the Australian cricket captain to step down and issue a tearful apology to his loyal wife.
The identity of the woman Paine was ‘sexting’ has not been revealed, though Cricket Tasmania, her former employer, released a statement clarifying the timeline of the investigation.
‘The allegations raised against Tim Paine by a former Cricket Tasmania employee were only brought to [our] attention when formal charges of theft were laid against that employee in mid 2018,’ the statement read.
Cricket Tasmania chairman, Andrew Gaggin, added no complaint was raised after the November 2017 incident, nor when she left the company.
Back in 2017, when he was first promoted back into the Australian side, Paine began sending flirtatious text messages to an employee at Cricket Tasmania
While news broke of the scandal on Friday, Paine said he and his wife worked through the betrayal at the time and that she’d forgiven and supported him
The father-of-two tearfully resigned as the captain of the Australian cricket team on Friday afternoon, a short time after he learned the sexting scandal would be made public
‘As soon as Cricket Tasmania was made aware, it undertook an investigation that determined the interaction was consensual, private, occurred on the one occasion only, was between mature adults and was not repeated,’ he said.
Criminal charges against the former employee are still pending, and the matter remains before the courts.
Paine issued a public and emotional apology to his wife of five years for the ‘hurt and pain’ he caused her when he sent lewd messages to the colleague.
The father-of-two tearfully resigned as the captain of the Australian cricket team a short time after he learned the sexting scandal would be made public.
Back in 2017, when he was first promoted back into the Australian side, Paine began sending flirtatious text messages to an employee at Cricket Tasmania.
Details of the lewd messages emerged on Friday afternoon, prompting the Australian cricket captain to step down and issue a tearful apology to his loyal wife
The messages progressed and, on November 23, the woman claims he sent her an unsolicited photo of his penis.
‘Will you want to taste my d**?? F**k me, I’m seriously hard,’ one of the messages he sent to the woman read.
While news broke of the scandal on Friday, Paine said he and his wife worked through the betrayal at the time and that she’d forgiven and supported him.
As he wiped tears from his eyes, Paine detailed how he thought the saga was ‘behind us’ and he’d be able to ‘focus entirely on the team as I have done for the last three or four years’.
Tim Paine has issued a public and emotional apology to his wife of five years for the ‘hurt and pain’ he caused her when he sent lewd messages to a female colleague
‘I recently became aware that this private text exchange was going to become public. On reflection, my actions in 2017 do not meet the standard of an Australian cricket captain.’
Cricket Australia is believed to have found out in June 2018 and launched an investigation, alongside Cricket Tasmania.
The woman at the time complained that ‘Mr Paine’s sexually explicit, unwelcome and unsolicited photograph of his genitals in addition to the graphic sexual comments’.
Paine specified during his press conference that he was exonerated by these investigations, which found he did not breach the code of conduct.
But he acknowledged the act was a particularly bad look as the face of Australian cricket and volunteered to step aside as captain of the team to focus on his family.
‘I’m deeply sorry for the hurt and pain that I have caused to my wife, my family and to the other party. I’m sorry for any damage that this does to the reputation of our sport and I believe that it is the right decision for me to stand down as captain effective immediately,’ he said.
‘I’ve been blessed with a wonderful, loving and supportive family and it breaks my heart to know how much that I have let them down. They have always stood by me, been my most loyal fans and I’m indebted to them for their support.’
Paine was brought in in 2018 as the saviour of Australian cricket after captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner were suspended, along with opener Cameron Bancroft.
The trio were caught on camera using concealed sandpaper to rough up the ball during the tour of South Africa.
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