A nephew of a former commissioner and active police officer in New South Wales has been cleared of capturing and uploading a video of himself having sex with an ex-girlfriend in secret with coworkers.
In a courtroom today in Sutherland Local Court, Constable Alexander James Cox, 30, was found not guilty of one count of recording intimate photographs without consent and one count of distributing intimate images without consent.
Magistrate Holly Kemp stated that while it is acknowledged that the officer shared explicit photos with coworkers, the constable and his ex-partner are not the ones shown in the film.
“The evidence is wholly indicative it was not on that video and could not have been her,” she stated.
The magistrate observed that neither the complainant nor the court had ever seen the film, which would have allowed her to be recognized.
Kemp also said that the constable’s claim to colleagues that the woman in the video was his former partner was probably a “throw-away joke” meant to improve his standing with other cops.
“It is utterly in poor taste, grubby, juvenile and unacceptable,” she stated.
A crucial witness stated that an image purportedly provided to her did not, in fact, depict a sexual act, leading to the dismissal of an additional charge of Cox sharing intimate images without consent yesterday.
The policeman, who is the nephew of former NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller, was charged with displaying a film to coworkers that showed “doggy style” intercourse with a woman who had a lead around her neck and a collar on.
According to what the court heard, he told them the video showed him and his former partner.
Paul McGirr, Cox’s attorney, contended that the lack of recollection by the men of the woman’s “distinctive tattoos” was solid proof that the officer’s previous partner was not visible on camera.
According to McGirr, “people cannot take tattoos on and off.”
Constable Zachary Barrett, one of those police, admitted that he had only assumed the person on the video was Cox’s former boyfriend based on what his colleague had told him.
If the woman’s tattoos had been visible on the video, the magistrate acknowledged that it was “utterly implausible” that Barrett would not have noticed them.
The woman, who cannot be identified legally, and Cox had a consensual sexual connection, but the court heard that she never gave him permission to record them having sex and that she did not remember him doing so.
She claimed that during their multiple sex encounters at his flat in Engadine, southern Sydney, she used her own collar and lead at least once.
Cox asserted that the lady might have confused the couple’s wearables—a leash and collar—for a pair of “silk ties” he had purchased, which were items from the film 50 Shades of Grey, since they had never been used during sexual activity.
Kemp conceded that there were “gaping holes” in the police inquiry, such as the complainant’s phone not being examined or her not being asked to present the collar and lead.
McGirr informed the court that his client would be requesting expenses, mostly due to the police’s inadequate investigation of the case.
September 16 has been scheduled for a costs hearing.
