Influencer trial: Teen sent nude photos to man he accused of blackmail, rape

The High Court at Auckland.

A teenager who said he was repeatedly blackmailed into a sex act with a New Zealand social media influencer — and on two occasions raped while unconscious — would often use terms of endearment with the man, the influencer’s lawyers showed jurors today as they combed through text messages between the two.

He also sent the man nude photos.

“Would you agree sending a love-heart emoji is flirtatious?” defence lawyer Emma Priest asked the accuser, now an adult known in court documents as Mr A, as he returned to the witness stand for a second day.

“Not in the context it was sent in,” he responded.

The defendant, who has interim name suppression, pleaded not guilty earlier this week to six counts of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, three counts of blackmail and two counts of aggravated wounding by stupefaction. The accusations, dating back to 2016, come from two accusers who were teenagers at the time of their friendships with the defendant.

Mr A, the only witness to have testified so far, said the defendant threatened to use his clout as an influencer to destroy his life if he didn’t relent to sex acts, despite him not being attracted to the defendant or men in general.

But defence lawyers Priest and Susan Gray have suggested the two had a consensual sexual relationship and that Mr A wasn’t as afraid of the defendant as he claimed. If anything, Priest suggested, the accuser was worried of others, including his girlfriend, thinking he was gay. He disagreed.

They pointed to text messages in which the teen typed “love ya” and “XO” — shorthand for kisses and hugs — and a message from the defendant in which he said he wanted a “sleepover soon” and that he hadn’t “had cuddles in ages”.

The accuser said cuddles meant only sitting close together as they watched a movie. He told all his friends “love ya”, he said.

“I suggest you sent [the defendant] naked pictures of you because you had a sexual interest in him,” Priest told him. “When people send naked pictures, do you agree that’s a form of flirting?”

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Not when they’re the result of blackmail, he responded.

The lawyer pointed out he told police about the photos last year but never mentioned they also were the result of blackmail until the trial.

“No, but we can add it to it [the charges] if you like,” he responded.

The accuser emphasised during his testimony that he hasn’t discussed or thought about the alleged incidents in detail since he talked to police in January 2020, and he tried not to think about it beforehand, so there might be some minor discrepancies.

“Bringing up these things wasn’t anything I was ever going to do. It was excruciating,” he said.

“I originally came forward because I got to the point where I didn’t want to have this happen to someone else. This was eating away at me quite corrosively.”