Police probe leaked topless premiership medal photo

Victoria Police are investigating allegations of revenge porn after an image of a topless woman wearing an AFL Premiership medal was circulated online.

The woman has claimed the photo of her was shared by a Richmond Tigers Football Club player online and through text messages without her permission, the Herald Sun reports. The photo is a close-up of a half-naked woman with a blue-ribboned gold medal around her torso. A second image, showing a woman nude and holding an AFL ball in front of a Tigers’ branded sign, emerged yesterday.

The first photo has been circulating in the AFL community for several days, and emerged not long after Richmond defeated Adelaide in the Grand Final.

Victoria Police said in a statement tonight: “Yarra Crime Investigation Unit detectives are investigating an image distributed on social media.

“The image was posted without consent. As the investigation is ongoing it would be inappropriate to comment further.”

Victorian laws targeting “sexting” – when adults send explicit images without permission – carry a maximum penalty of two years in prison.

The Herald Sun reports while the woman consented to the topless photo, she said the Richmond player told her he had deleted it from his phone. Instead, he reportedly sent it to his friends.

The AFL Integrity Unit is understood to be investigating the leaked photo, and has been interacting with the woman for several days.

Richmond president Peggy O’Neal said she believed the club was investigating.

“I would expect that there’s an investigation going on now,” she told the ABC. “It’s been brought to my attention very recently within the last few hours, but I understand that something’s going on.”

Ms O’Neal said the AFL has not kept pace with clubs’ Respect and Responsibility policies.

“It hasn’t been updated, it hasn’t been modernised,” she said. “The clubs are much more strict on themselves than the AFL is with the Respect and Responsibility policy. An update was promised almost two years ago and we still don’t have it.”

The woman has, according to the Melbourne newspaper, engaged lawyers to represent her through the process.