This is certainly the hottest story around town today. Not since Lara Bingle topless photos were posted online against her will earlier this year has celebrity, sex and football been such big news.
St Kilda footballer, Nick Riewoldt has been involved in an online photo scandal through Facebook and Twitter. A Melbourne teenager is posting explicit photos of Saints players Nick Riewoldt, Zac Dawson and Nick Dal Santo in an act of “revenge” (her word) after she made a complaint earlier in the year against two Saints players, claiming she had become pregnant after having sex with the men. The AFL investigation found the players had not acted inappropriately and no charges were laid.
ST Kilda star Nick Riewoldt says he doesn’t know the girl who published explicit photos of him and other players on her Facebook page, but is disappointed in her actions.
But the teen who has released explicit photos of St Kilda players Riewoldt, Zac Dawson and Nick Dal Santo on the internet says she plans to upload at least a dozen more, despite a court order forbidding it.
Photos released by the girl on her Facebook site yesterday, showing the players in various states of undress in a hotel room, have outraged the AFL Players’ Association and St Kilda. The club yesterday asked police to investigate.
This morning Riewoldt said he had done nothing wrong.
“I can’t understand why someone I don’t know would want to denigrate me in this way. I don’t know the person. I’m just very disappointed and hurt.”
The Saints’ captain said the picture in question was taken about a year ago by a teammate in Miami. He said he had woken up, got out of bed, and the photo was taken but he told the fellow player to delete it and believed it had been destroyed.
The girl, a jilted former lover of another Saint, is threatening to release a “scrapbook” of damaging images and text messages.
She has vowed to continue posting images each day until the police force her to stop.
Last night, a Federal Court judge ordered that the teenager and Facebook remove the images. Facebook closed the teenager’s account shortly after 8pm, but she responded at about 9pm by posting a link on Twitter to the pictures.
The teenager’s twitter page – we’ve blanked out her name
One of the photographs shows Riewoldt posing naked next to teammate Zac Dawson, who is wearing jeans and is holding out what appears to be a condom packet. The other shows Dal Santo in a more explicit pose.
”Merry Christmas courtesy of the St Kilda schoolgirl” is writ- ten across the photographs.
The AFL and police interviewed the teenager when she was a student, following the allegations that she had become pregnant to a St Kilda player, and decided not to take action ”as no unlawful activity had occurred”.
The teenager, whom The Age has opted not to name, said her baby was stillborn on October 5.
She told The Age she was posting the photographs out of revenge. She said she hated St Kilda and the AFL ”because they treated me with disrespect”.
”I just want to let them know what it feels like to have your reputation absolutely ruined,” she said. She has been offering the photographs to media outlets for at least a month, and said last night she would post further pictures until she was satisfied that players knew what it felt like to be degraded.
Has anyone seen these photos? Anyway. Just like when a topless shot of Lara Bingle was circulated on social media earlier this year, this story raises issues for everyone. How do you protect your reputation and image when the click of a mouse can wreck untold damage?
(PS: if you come be a friend of Mamamia on Facebook, we solemnly promise never to publish any nude photos of you)
NOTE: Any comments that are abusive about any of the people involved will be deleted. This is a fascinating and MESSY story but it’s possible to discuss it and express opinions without being personally cruel. Please keep it to the usual high Mamamia standards of comment.
Top Comments
Just curious: If someone posted a Group Therapy here saying they had photos that they could publish somewhere and get an ex/someone they felt hard done by into shit, how would people react?
Why is this the exact same question that Kris2040 wrote a couple of posts below?
If you are stupid enough to take nude photo's it's your funeral. And Kris or whatever your name is if you are happy to engage in sex with multiple partners I would assume you would like the freedom to do so without being called a slut, whore or some of the other absolute despicable things that have been written in other forums so I'm a little perplexed at your anger.
No-one has really "bashed" footballers to any damaging degree and let's face it they have a very large, very expensive support network that surrounds them. I find it very difficult to show much respect to the particular players involved when there are other players such as Jim Stynes, Chris Judd and I'm sure countless others who don't buy into this hero worshipping, testosterone crap and know the definition of being a man. It's a sad reflection on our society when women still throw around the words slut and whore yet think nothing of it.
Um, I haven't called anyone a slut or a whore. Ever. Please go and have a read through what I have written before you start accusing me of that.
I have no idea how the question that I posted last night has somehow been reposted under someone else's name.
I'd say someone saw it and thought you were on to something, you should feel special Kris! =P
Nice to have you back, btw!
Some people seem to think that this girl's profile pics reflect badly on her. I don't agree.
I would like to publicly apologise to this girl, on behalf of the society I live in, for the garbage that she (and her generation of girls) have been smothered with for their entire lives. I apologise that you have been raised in an ugly paris hilton/ralph mag/hip hop video culture that continually tells you that you have to be 'on display' all the time, and you're nothing if you're not "hot", "fast", "smooth", and available for sex from a young age. I'm sorry people haven't helped you to realise this doesn't make you powerful. I'm sorry that this culture has let you to believe that posing provocatively is the way to feel acceptable and powerful and wanted; and grown-up. I'm sorry to all of the girls of your generation that pose for their facebook photos as if they're posing for ralph magazine, and don't even realise what they're doing. I'm sorry that my generation has watched this happen and done nothing about it.
I am 39 yrs old, and I'm smart and literate and educated and able to analyse and criticise and form my own opinion. And I am relatively well off, and I have a particular interest in this topic, and I have time to think about it, and I make time to read what psychologists say about it. And I still don't know how the hell I'm supposed to help my 5 yr old daughter negotiate and survive this ugly part of our world. And I think about that all the time. And it makes me really angry, because I feel so powerless.
So how were you supposed to work it out, you poor little girl. I am sorry that we didn't work it out sooner, and make sure there were people available to help you work it out. I'm sorry there's been no-one able to help you see that throwing yourself at footballers isn't going to get you anywhere, or help you feel the things you need to feel.
I'm sorry that our society has done nothing about the ugly side of football culture. I'm sorry that you live in a culture where groups of footballers think it's ok to make use of people like you. And I'm sorry that our society has done nothing about this. I'm sorry that you live in a society where groups of footballers think it's ok to hang out in hotel rooms with 15 or 16yr olds. And do whatever they want, as long as it's not illegal. I'm sorry we haven't made it illegal to be casually cruel to teenage girls, or to treat them in a sexually degrading way, whatever their 'legal' age. I'm sorry that you see on the news that groups of grown men can 'join in' with Matty Johns when he's having sex with a nineteen year old girl, and never be named and shamed. I'm sorry that it seems footballers can get away with anything.
I'm sorry that you felt this was the only way to bring on some consequences. Sadly it will only make things worse for you. The media is too powerful, and sadly they always take the side of footballers and money. Or whatever side will stir up the most controversy and nastiness. They will pretend to interview you in good faith, but they will turn on you. I'm sorry for that too. I'm sorry if there is no-one to help you work this stuff out.
What you have done is wrong though. It might seem like you're fighting the system, but really it's joining it.
I wish you were reading this, because then I could tell you that there is someone who will help you. In amongst the media coverage, Australia's best known adolescent-psychologist, Michael Carr-Gregg is very concerned for you, and asking for you to contact him. Google him, he's famous.
By the way, I'm also sorry for Nick Reiwoldt, if it's true that he is 'one of the nice guys', and completely an innocent victim in this affair. But, he's still part of the footy culture that turns a blind eye to, and protects the behaviour of footballers who aren't 'nice guy's'. And my definition of a 'nice guy' isn't just someone who doesn't join in, it is someone who steps in and says something about wrong behaviour, before the pack mentality has time to set in. I acknowledge that I know nothing about him, and he may well be one of the few footballers doing this.
Thumbs up x 100.
You've said a lot of what I think, but am sometimes reluctant to articulate, about the 'culture' of footballers and sex.
Beautifully said.
Daisy you rock - your 5 year old is lucky to have such a smart and articulate mother who is WORRIED about these issues. Mrs M