Footage has emerged of former Green MP Golriz Ghahraman allegedly stealing a designer handbag from a Ponsonby boutique.
Video / Supplied
The photograph shows the former MP in a Pak’nSave store while she was bailed up by security.
The leaker was urged through a message thread on a blog to post the image to a website notorious for inciting violence against women.
Ghahraman says those outraged by the leak should complain to police.
This story has been amended to clarify Marc Spring was not a participant in the text conversation posted on his blog.
An image of former MP Golriz Ghahraman purportedly from security camera footage when she was accused of shoplifting is circulating – but everyone with access orcontrol over the footage says they don’t know how it got into circulation.
Not me, said Foodstuffs, which owns the Pak’nSave at Royal Oak, where its security staff questioned Ghahraman in October over a $40 item they claimed was missing.
Not me, said Auror, the privately owned surveillance platform that retailers – including Foodstuffs – use to record alleged retail crime incidents.
And yet, the image has emerged on a little-known blog site run by a man with a history of targeting Ghahraman online.
The ex-MP, who pleaded guilty to four charges of shoplifting last year, has described the encouragement in a text thread on the blog to post footage to 4Chan “like trying to get me killed”. The site is notorious for directing violence towards women.
The image shows Ghahraman leaning on a shopping trolley in an aisle that appears identical to one at Royal Oak’s Pak’nSave. The tote bags into which she had been placing shopping can be seen in the trolley, with Ghahraman reaching inside one.
The Herald has reported that store security asked Ghahraman to empty her shopping bags before she got to the checkout, then alleged through the Auror system that a $40 item was missing from the store. The image appears to be from a body camera.
The blogger, Marc Spring, posted the image on his blog site under the headline: “From The River To The Sea I Want My Pak’nSave For Free”, mashing up Ghahraman’s support for Palestine with the shoplifting allegation.
Spring has posted 28 articles focused on Ghahraman to his blog over the past year.
In the post containing the image, he claimed: “This site has obtained some security camera footage by a source (we have plenty more).”
In this instance, the image was within a text message from someone who claimed to have a copy of the store security video. The person sending it claimed to be unable to post it themselves “until she has been charged”.
Former MP Golriz Ghahraman in an image purported to be from security footage.
With that, the person receiving the text message encouraged the sender to post it to 4Chan, the online message board notorious for hosting white supremacists and those who have denigrated and made violent sexual posts about women.
Police have said charges will not be laid in relation to the shopping incident. The Herald has spoken to lawyers who say it would be difficult to prove a case when a shopper had not left the store in which they were shopping.
A Foodstuffs spokesman said the company could not speculate about how people got content for text messages.
“We take privacy and security seriously, have strict controls in place around our systems and review these regularly. We will take any necessary steps to protect people’s personal information.”
Additional questions to Foodstuffs about whether it was taking those “necessary steps” in this case went unanswered.
An Auror spokesman said it couldn’t comment on “specific event information entered by retailers” and suggested speaking with Foodstuffs.
“Auror’s software is secure and user activity is fully auditable.”
A police spokesperson said: “Police are not aware of the source of the photo in that text chain. We refer you to previous comment surrounding this matter.”
That previous comment was: “As previously advised, there are a number of external parties that had knowledge of this matter and we are not aware of the source.”
Ghahraman has lashed out over the release of the image, which she believed was from the visit to Pak’nSave in Royal Oak, and urged people to complain to Commissioner of Police Richard Chambers.
She said the encouragement to post the image to 4Chan was “like trying to get me killed”.
“Somewhat a bigger scandal for police, Foodstuffs and Auror than any of us having items in our totes in our trollies. Who’s accessing this surveillance and what are they doing with it?
“Over to you police commissioner to show concern and order the inquiry (into the source) to regain trust, especially of women, queer folk, brown and black peoples, anyone who is rightly terrified of being hunted on 4Chan via police mass surveillance.”
Spring, a second-hand car dealer, has been approached for comment. He has previously emerged as being linked to the campaign by blogger Cameron Slater against the businessman Matt Blomfield.
The shopping incident took place the day before Ghahraman was to appear in the High Court seeking a discharge without conviction sentence to replace the fine and conviction given in the District Court.
Police learned of the Pak’nSave incident the day after the High Court hearing and sought to have it included in the judge’s considerations.
David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He first joined the Herald in 2004.
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