Footy WAG sent revenge porn pics of her NRL player ex to a friend because she was a ‘concerned mother’, court hears

The ex-wife of a top NRL star acted like a “concerned mother” when she sent pornographic photos of her ex-partner and his new wife to a friend after their children were exposed to the images, a court has been told .

The woman faced Sydney Local Court at the Downing Center on the final day of her hearing on Friday as she fights charges of distributing and recording revenge porn with her ex-husband.

The court was told the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, became aware of the pornographic photos and videos when her children and their two friends found them on an iPad in October last year.

Police allege the woman illegally ‘recorded’ the videos and images of the sex acts without the consent of the NRL star or his new partner.

But the woman’s lawyer, Christopher Cole, urged Magistrate Glenn Bartley to investigate the woman’s circumstances at the time.

“Under the circumstances at the time, if I may say so, she is being forced by (the other mother) to show the image,” Cole said Friday.

‘The suspect says… ‘I was a concerned mother, I did what any other mother would have done under the circumstances.’

As the woman sat at the front of the public gallery, Mr Cole urged the court to consider morality, common sense and common experience.

He told the court that the “reasonably acceptable person” was not a lawyer or magistrate, but rather “parents with young children exposed to pornography.”

“The other, more consistent, plausible explanation is that she is a concerned mother,” he said of the woman.

During the hearing in August last year, the woman told the court she found “several images and videos of sexual intercourse” on the iPad, including the NRL star “digitally penetrating” his new partner and “various sexual positions”.

The woman was preparing breakfast for her two children and their friends when she saw them sitting around the iPad and heard them ‘oh-ing and ah-ing’.

A friend of her young child then showed her the iPad, which the court was told belonged to her son and was commonly used in her ex-husband’s home.

The woman (pictured) – who cannot be named for legal reasons – was brought to court on Friday to face charges of distributing and recording revenge porn with her ex-husband.

A photo on the iPad showed her ex-husband’s new partner ‘naked’ with her ‘breasts visible’, posing ‘in a way that covered her genitals’, the court was told.

During cross-examination by police prosecutor Craig Pullen in August, the woman burst into tears when asked if the photos were her property.

“It is not my property, but when it comes to my home, my two very young children witness pornographic images and domestic violence,” the woman said through tears.

“I have a duty as a mother, and along with other children in my care, to protect (them).”

She told the court she took pictures of the images on the iPad because she was concerned about what her children might see while in their father’s care.

The woman denied Senior Sergeant Pullen’s suggestion that the children may have only seen one image on the iPad and told the court she had seen them ‘swipe’ through the photos.

She told the court she sent a screen recording to a child’s parent in an attempt to “apologise profusely” and explain the situation because she felt she had a “duty” to inform the children’s mother ‘what the content was’.

The woman told the court she took photos of the images on the iPad because she was “worried” about what her children might see while in their father’s care.

Mr Cole told the court on Friday that the other mother had asked her friend to send the images the children had seen so she could discuss the contents with them.

It’s not in dispute that the woman sent the photos to her friend, but she defends it on the grounds that it was “reasonable” for her to record and distribute the images.

The court was told the woman had messaged her ex-husband and his new partner after discovering the footage, saying she had everything ‘now set in stone’.

“If you do anything wrong, by the children or by me, it will be in court,” the court was told in the message.

The woman faces one charge of intentionally distributing an intimate image without consent, and another charge of intentionally recording an intimate image without consent.

Under the new NSW laws covering revenge porn, a number of ‘exceptions’ can be used as a defence.

These include whether a “reasonable person would consider the suspect’s conduct acceptable” in distributing the images.

The judge will have to investigate the nature and content of the material, ‘the circumstances’ in which it was recorded and the extent to which the privacy of the alleged victims has been affected.