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.”

Today, the man, who represented New Zealand internationally, made a bid for permanent name suppression at the sentencing hearing in New Plymouth District Court but was knocked back by the judge.

However, he cannot be named until December 20 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 May 23 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 May 30, 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 June 5 and June 8 with the man sending photos on at least two occasions.

During the 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.

Tara Shaskey joined NZME in 2022 as a news director and Open Justice reporter. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked at Stuff covering crime and justice, arts and entertainment, and Māori issues.