Rising sports star who made intimate recording let off

The 19-year-old, who the <i>Herald</i> cannot identify for legal reasons, also has to pay his victim $2000 in reparations. Photo / File

A rising teenage sports star who made an intimate visual recording on his cellphone of a woman he met in a Ponsonby bar has been discharged without conviction.

The 19-year-old, who the Herald cannot identify for legal reasons, also has to pay his victim $2000 in reparations.

At sentencing indication at the Auckland District Court yesterday, the court heard how the teenager was drinking at the Longroom bar on Ponsonby Rd in December when he met a woman and her friend.

He and a small group of his friends then took the women back to his house and had some drinks in a spa pool.

The victim said she was getting sleepy so the man took her to a bedroom with some of his friends.

During an intimate act, the man made a seven-second video and a 10-second video on his phone which he then later uploaded to a Facebook messenger group chat with eight others.

But within a week, the man realised the gravity of what he'd done, deleted the video and asked his friends to delete it too.

Judge Grant Fraser read from a statement from the victim who said she'd developed insomnia and flashbacks to the night of the recordings.

She would also suffer a psychological impact "probably for the rest of her life" from the serious offending, Judge Fraser said.

"There can be no doubt that this has had a huge impact on her."

However, the impact of a conviction and publication of his name would have a greater consequence than the weight of the charges, Judge Fraser said.

The teenager's ability to travel freely would be "a significant inconvenience" and a conviction would also affect future job prospects as he had been offered semi-professional sporting contracts overseas.

The teenager also had an "exemplary record" in both the academic and sporting worlds, showed significant remorse and Judge Fraser accepted the behaviour was out of character.

Judge Fraser discharged the man without conviction in return for a guilty plea and a $2000 reparation payment to the victim. The sentence was handed down this morning after the payment was made.