Aaron Smith naughty boy?
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@antipodean said in Aaron Smith naughty boy?:
Good thing my meagre talent prevented me from representing New Zealand at rugby given my behaviour over the years. I mean, a disabled toilet? What an amateur. Try the halfway line of the Penrith football stadium, the Opera House steps, Royal Botanic gardens and Manly beach, and these were classy girls. Imagine the uproar if someone caught me nailing the tarts.
I'll see that and raise with Great Wall of China. Top class.
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@Grins said in Aaron Smith naughty boy?:
@antipodean said in Aaron Smith naughty boy?:
Good thing my meagre talent prevented me from representing New Zealand at rugby given my behaviour over the years. I mean, a disabled toilet? What an amateur. Try the halfway line of the Penrith football stadium, the Opera House steps, Royal Botanic gardens and Manly beach, and these were classy girls. Imagine the uproar if someone caught me nailing the tarts.
I'll see that and raise with Great Wall of China. Top class.
On the wall or up against it?
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Aaron Smith got screwed – and Stuff could end up getting sued
By Natalya King
October 8, 2016
Aaron Smith’s indiscretions have been the biggest media story of the week. But lawyer Natalya King believes both the couple who made the recording and the outlets which broke the story may have committed an invasion of privacy.Amidst the red-eyed rage that greeted the news that All Blacks have sex – and sometimes have sex with women who are not their partners (what a shock) – there was one somewhat unexpected voice of calm. The New Zealand Herald reports that, discussing the matter on the Paul Henry Show, Judith Collins admitted “the situation wasn’t her business.”
Quite. In fact, the law might go so far as to say not only was it not Judith’s business, or yours or mine for that matter, but that recording Aaron Smith’s escapade and sending it into a news outlet was actually an invasion of his privacy.
In the legal sense, an invasion of privacy is the “highly offensive” disclosure of private facts. That is, if Aaron had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the facts of the event, and if the average person considered that the publicity given to those facts was highly offensive then Stuff (or the couple who enthusiastically recorded the incident) may well find themselves on the wrong end of an invasion of privacy claim.
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Absent some voluntary disclosure by way of, for example, an intentionally leaked sex tape, it’s usually pretty clear that sex between two consenting adults is a private matter. And yes, I know, part of the appeal in having sex in a toilet cubicle is the risk of getting caught, but when ahem push comes to shove, it’s a little difficult to see how one’s sexual activity in a confined and indoor space with four walls is anything other than a private fact.
Some, including Stuff, the aforementioned receiver of the amorous audio-recording, have asserted that the toilet cubicle was a public place, but that’s not quite true. Aside from the obvious problem that the entire purpose of a closed door is to create a private space, Christchurch Airport is a private business that prohibits filming within the airport without its express permission, and without payment of a “location charge”.
See also: Eight key learnings from the Aaron Smith toilet sex scandal
Even if it were correct to say that the airport is a public space (and good luck getting a judge on board with that one), that doesn’t mean that Smith’s sexual activity automatically loses its private status. The law still protects a degree of privacy in public – for context, the UK Courts found that photos of Naomi Campbell on the street outside a drug treatment centre were disclosure of a private fact,¹ and the New Zealand courts have protected as private a conversation between an allegedly intoxicated driver and her husband following a car crash on a public highway in New Zealand.²
Just like Naomi Campbell (albeit probably not quite like Naomi Campbell) one issue for Aaron Smith has been his celebrity status. All Blacks, so the theory goes, give up their right to privacy as soon as they get Steve’s call. But that’s not quite right either. In the eyes of the law, a person’s right to privacy can be eroded if there’s some legitimate public concern in the matter. Legitimate public concern, according to the courts, covers issues like public health and safety, or the conduct of the government. That might automatically mean that some well-known figures, like politicians, have a lesser right to privacy, but on the sliding scale of celebrity status vs public concern, an All Black and his sexual proclivities are fairly low level. Put another way, two people using a disabled toilet as a space in which to carry out their infidelity might be distasteful, but it’s not a matter of national importance.
Put in that context, the only remaining question is whether the publicity of Aaron’s tryst in the toilet – and its accompanying audiotape – was highly offensive. For my part, when John Key’s commenting on your sex life it’s gone well beyond that.
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@Bones Interesting, and notice that this is not being reported on Stuff and all the Aaron Smith articles seems to have miraculously disappeared. Who can sue though because if it's only Smith (or his partner) they will just be wanting to put this all behind them now.
I'm just glad the terrible stuff I got up to when I was his age was pre internet and before anyone had the ability to record things. Imagine anyone on here how it would feel to have your prime minister condemn you.
this is making my blood boil now and if he pisses off overseas I'll be ropeable but won't blame him.
Being called out by a pony tail puller because a pious person says your're special because your face is on a weetbix packet. makes no sense.
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I was nearly going to comment a while back that Stuff seemed to have seen sense and had let some real news take precedence, but it now looks like they are running for cover.
Good job.
The last line of that article is bang on. What the fuck was Key making comment for anyway? -
@Siam said in Aaron Smith naughty boy?:
Please please someone sue the pompous filming family, the media outlets and John Key and let's at least attempt to set the world right about what's actually news and privacy.
Thought the ABs threw him under a bus too actually.
How about that old fucker who tried to take John Key, and in another instance, John Banks to task in court? He could finally do something useful
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and AS seems able to control what he says at least, and has made headlines for shutting down his twitter account...so yeah, pretty much exactly like Trump
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@Siam said in Aaron Smith naughty boy?:
Please please someone sue the pompous filming family, the media outlets and John Key and let's at least attempt to set the world right about what's actually news and privacy.
Thought the ABs threw him under a bus too actually.
My sentiments exactly. Sue the pants off the bloody couple and reveal their names.
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It was a (relatively) private space and clearly his team mates and management had no idea or he would have flown back from Argentina rather than flying on to SA. So he was dobbed in to his employer, the public and the prime minister for cheating on his partner.
It wasn't for having sex in a disabled toilet as they sat on the video for several days while the pervert husband googled Smith to confirm it was not his partner. They were not going to do anything up to that point and if they were, well the husband (or wife) could have walked up to Smith tapped him on the shoulder and said mate can i have quiet word - we saw that back there, you need to pull yr head in. And if they did not have the marbles to do that, then it probably wasn't a world-altering problem to begin with.
Instead we get the passive aggressive don't confront the actual person but instead invade their privacy by telling everybody else in the world.
The wife thinks young kids should not have to deal with their stars on weetbix packets being naughty. Her solution is to broadcast the naughtiness to all kids, when they would have had no idea otherwise.
At least I live in a country where this is not news so I don't need to discuss this with my kids. We watched the test yesterday and my 10 year old son just assumed Aaron Smith is injured. Yes son he's injured (penis injury).
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@GM1 said in Aaron Smith naughty boy?:
It was a (relatively) private space and clearly his team mates and management had no idea or he would have flown back from Argentina rather than flying on to SA. So he was dobbed in to his employer, the public and the prime minister for cheating on his partner.
It wasn't for having sex in a disabled toilet as they sat on the video for several days while the pervert husband googled Smith to confirm it was not his partner. They were not going to do anything up to that point and if they were, well the husband (or wife) could have walked up to Smith tapped him on the shoulder and said mate can i have quiet word - we saw that back there, you need to pull yr head in. And if they did not have the marbles to do that, then it probably wasn't a world-altering problem to begin with.
Instead we get the passive aggressive don't confront the actual person but instead invade their privacy by telling everybody else in the world.
The wife thinks young kids should not have to deal with their stars on weetbix packets being naughty. Her solution is to broadcast the naughtiness to all kids, when they would have had no idea otherwise.
At least I live in a country where this is not news so I don't need to discuss this with my kids. We watched the test yesterday and my 10 year old son just assumed Aaron Smith is injured. Yes son he's injured (penis injury).
This is it for me in all these sorts of cases. Such a hypocritical thing to say when this and most alcohol/late night incidents would never be seen by any kids if it wasn't for the media broadcasting it and making a big deal out of "poor role models"
If your kid asks what the noises from the disabled toilets are you tell them to mind their own business you don't start recording it. I would love for them to get exposed and get in shit for their actions which are far worse for society than what Smith did. -
The role models thing is a bit weird, what kind of fuckwit outsources teaching their kids right from wrong to someone they only know from watching them toss a ball around every week or so?
I'm a bit disappointed they haven't been named yet and the way our courts are if they do get sued they will probably get name suppression.
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Aaron Smith has subjected to his employer to a week of negative media attention. People can say that this media attention was unwarranted, but his actions have damaged the NZRU's brand, even if only temporarily. When he decided to do what he did, he was in team uniform and was at the airport in an official, working capacity.
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@Cantab79 said in Aaron Smith naughty boy?:
Aaron Smith has subjected to his employer to a week of negative media attention. People can say that this media attention was unwarranted, but his actions have damaged the NZRU's brand, even if only temporarily. When he decided to do what he did, he was in team uniform and was at the airport in an official, working capacity.
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Aaron Smith has also greatly helped his employer make millions of dollars. Suggest the NZRU realise that it's core spending market are torn between commenting "what's the big deal?" to "fuck Nugget you legend"
The amount of times I've been at an airport waiting for a saucy minx to stroll up and suggest a quick knee trembler in the bogs...well played both parties in my humble opinion.
The money and publicity keep flowing on a 17 game winning streak and wowsers who get upset with this aint forking out dosh for rugby.
Hope our sensitive wee bullet passer doesn't cop too much more grief from now.
And Key can fuck off!
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http://www.nzherald.co.nz/rugby/news/article.cfm?c_id=80&objectid=11727063
"It was actually my wife who wished to go to the media and it has therefore caused a lot of strain in our relationship this past week,'' he said.
"I would like to formally apologise to Aaron Smith and the rugby union for reporting the story.''
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They could have gone to the NZRU not the media, and then not recorded it...I think the latter in particular is what makes people more angry at them.