The man threatened to post a woman's naked photos online and sent her a series of messages containing the images. (File photo) Photo: Jae Park/ Unsplash
A former top sports star who threatened to post a woman's naked photos online and bombarded her with a series of images has been given an official final warning he will be jailed if the psychological abuse continues.
"The starting point for this is prison and you need to be very clear that if this happens again, that's where the end point will be as well," Judge Tony Greig told him.
"Don't expect any mercy."
On Thursday, the man, who represented New Zealand internationally, made a bid for permanent name suppression at the sentencing hearing in the New Plymouth District Court but was knocked back by the judge.
However, he cannot be named until 20 December after a final interim suppression order was issued to allow him to tend to particular personal matters.
He previously pleaded guilty to three representative charges of posting an intimate visual recording without consent.
Judge Greig sentenced the man to 18 months of intensive supervision and ordered that he pay the victim $3000 in emotional harm reparation.
The photos of the woman must be deleted from the man's phone before police return it to him.
"I've marked the record with final warning," the judge told him.
Incessant messages
The court heard that on 23 May this year, the man sent the woman several naked photos of herself that she had previously shared with him.
He told her to remember he had a lot of photos and that they were "worth a share", and threatened to post them to her social media accounts.
On 30 May, the man sent a naked photo of the woman to another phone she had access to, with the intention and understanding it would be her who saw it.
He followed it with a message saying he "loved the photo".
The woman asked him to stop and to delete the images, but he went on to send several more photos of her.
One of the photos was sent with the message: "Shame you are a f***wit with nice t***".
The messaging continued between 5 and 8 June with the man sending photos on at least two occasions.
During those three days, the woman asked him twice to delete the images and said what he was doing was inappropriate.
He responded that she should not have shared the photos with him.
'Abhorrent violence'
The woman said in her victim impact statement to the court that the man's abuse was relentless and hard to ignore.
He often sent her 10 to 20 messages on various platforms a day.
"Some were loving, some were abusive."
She said the abuse had impacted her and she has had to seek therapy and take anti-anxiety medication as a result.
The woman opposed the man's application for permanent name suppression, asking what message that would send others if a man was not named for his "abhorrent violence towards a woman".
"Why would someone who is clearly a danger to a woman ... be protected? He will do it again."
Failed to contact probation service
Judge Greig said he did not disagree with the woman.
A restorative justice conference did not go ahead, despite the man being willing to attend. He instead wrote the victim an apology letter.
In sentencing the man, the judge expected a pre-sentence report to inform the process but said the man had failed to contact probation services, which prepares the report.
He said he often put defendants in custody for not reporting to probation but was not doing that this time because he did not plan to imprison him.
"That may indicate your attitude to all of this. But as I say, you are lucky I am not putting you in custody until March or April in order just to get a report."
The judge acknowledged the defence's arguments that the man's offending was at the lower end of the scale, in the context of "how some men behave".
He said the sentence of intensive supervision came with a special condition that he attends treatment programmes and counselling to address his offending behaviour.
Judge Greig hoped that would include anger management.
* This story was first published by the New Zealand Herald.