What matters about the Daily Mail’s big Aaron Smith sex scandal story – and what doesn’t
Leaked texts and sordid details have brought the Aaron Smith scandal roaring back into the news. Lawyer Natalya King assesses the fallout and its legal implications for Smith, the All Blacks and the media.
Aaron Smith and the toilet tryst is back in the news, but this time around we’ve got all the detail we really didn’t want to know last year – and more!
According to the Daily Mail, Smith had “been having a sordid affair with a lawyer for two years” before he and the lawyer were filmed entering the now notorious disabled toilets at Christchurch airport. Not a publication to hold back on the juicy details, the Daily Mail has also published a series of rather lurid Facebook messages between the pair, which appear to show that Smith lied to his girlfriend, his coaches and All Blacks management about the incident, and asked the unnamed woman involved to swear a false affidavit stating that the two hadn’t had sexual intercourse.
The Daily Mail has kindly blurred out some the offending texts, but the messages as published suggest Smith has attempted the Bill Clinton defence. One reads, “So we getting to a point admitting I got a [blurred], freaked out … but didn’t have sex!!!!!!!! ok …? … U started giving me a [blurred], I freaked out and left … if it come to that. But no sex ok ok?”
So what does all this mean and why does it matter?
As I wrote when the story first broke last year, in New Zealand an invasion of privacy is the “highly offensive” disclosure of private facts. Whether facts are private or not depends on whether the person could have had a reasonable expectation of privacy in those facts; so here, whether Smith could have reasonably expected that his offer for “snecky toilet actions” would remain private.
The law generally accepts as a starting point that details of one’s sexual relations should be regarded as confidential, including messages between couples as to their sexual relations – even if those sexual relations aren’t between spouses or partners. In addition, it is clear from Smith’s messages (“Delete these message, Baby stop freaking”; “Thank you for this and keeping quite will make it all easier got to go delete this”; “Say nothing”; “So member delete this”) that he intended the messages to remain private communications between the two.
Against this however, there’s the recent warning of the Northern Ireland High Court, (straight out of every modern parents’ playbook), that “it is difficult to see how information can remain confidential if a Facebook user shares it with all his friends… ”. And, like we said last time, Smith is an All Black, so while that doesn’t mean it’s open season on what he gets up to in his private life, it does mean that what he can reasonably expect to remain private is likely slightly narrower than what the rest of us can seek to protect.
Having said all of that, the real difficulty for Smith is that he spoke out about the issue: as English footballers John Terry and Ryan Giggs and many other sportsmen in between have come to realise, once a celebrity speaks out about their “strong” partner and their “massive mistake”, they’ve stepped onto the public stage, and they’d better hope that the image they’ve carefully crafted is accurate.
Here, Smith let us believe that the toilet incident was a one-off and issued a televised mea culpa. The question is whether, in those circumstances, disclosure of Facebook messages to show that it was more than a one-off, would be in the public interest. It’s a sliding scale: the fact Smith likes to have sex in public toilets probably isn’t something that can be said to be in the public interest; the fact that he lied about it to his girlfriend probably isn’t either. But if, as the Daily Mail says, he lied to the All Blacks management team, that might be a matter of public interest. And, if the Daily Mail and its unidentified woman is to be believed, and he lied to the public, that really leaves him nowhere to hide.
Leaving all the sex aside, what’s worse of course is that Smith allegedly asked the woman involved to swear an affidavit stating that the two didn’t have sex. She declined to do so, a sensible decision for a lawyer, given that swearing a false affidavit is a criminal offence, punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment. But Smith’s actions themselves could still constitute a criminal offence – a person who incites someone else to commit an offence is themselves a party to and guilty of that offence. And further, disclosure of an alleged crime is likely to be in the public interest. That is, for all his efforts (“are you will to do a sawn afferdavided to say we didn’t have sex in there … Hope you keen”) Smith may as well have signed the false affidavit himself.
As to the truth of all this, it’s worth noting at this juncture that the mystery woman has confirmed her account – that the two did have sex in the Christchurch cubicle, that the two have known each other for a long time, and that Smith knew he was asking her to swear a false statement, but she says that the All Blacks management didn’t. She also said she’d been trolled on social media, publicly abused, and door-stepped by the media both at her home and her workplace. Which indicates, of course, that whatever they thought of their All Black hero, none of those people considered that a woman had any reasonable expectation of privacy in these events.
Comments on RugbyPass
I like this, but ultimately rugby already has enough trophies. Trying to make more games “consequential" might prove to be a fools errand, although this is a less bad idea than some others. Minor quibble with the title of the article; it isn’t very meaningful to say the boks are the unofficial world champions when it would be functionally impossible for the Raeburn trophy not to be held by the world champions. There’s a period of a few months every 4 years when there is no “unofficial” world champion, and the Raeburn trophy is held by the actual world champions.
8 Go to commentsIts a great idea but one that I dont think will have a lot of traction. It will depend on the prestige that they each hold but if you can do that it would be great. When Japan beat the Boks (my team) I was absolutely devestated but I wont deny the great game they played that day. We were outclassed and it was one of the best games of rugby I have seen. Using an idea like this you might just give the the underdog teams more of an opportunity to beat the big teams and I can absolutely see it being a brilliant display of rugby. They beat us because they planned for that game. It was a great moment for Japan. This way we can remove the 4 year wait and give teams something to aim for outside of World Cup years.
8 Go to commentsHi, Dave here. Happy to answer questions 🥰
8 Go to commentsDon’t think that headline is accurate. It’s great to see Aus doing better but I’m not sure they’ve shown much threat to the top of the table. They shouldn’t be inflating wins against the lousy Highlanders and Crusaders either.
3 Go to commentsSuch a shame Roigard and Aumua picked up long term injuries, probably the two form players in the comp. Also, pretty sure Clarke Dermody isn’t their coach. Got it half right though.
3 Go to commentsOh the Aussie media, they never learn. At least Andrew Kellaway is like “Woah, yeah it’s great, but settle down there guys” having endured years of the Aussie media, fans, and often their players getting ahead of themselves only to fall flat on their faces. Have the “We'll win the Bledisloe for sure this year!” headlines started yet? It’s simple to see what’s going on. The Aussie teams are settled, they didn't lose any of their major players overseas. The Crusaders and Chiefs lost key experienced All Blacks, and Razor in the Crusaders case, and clearly neither are anywhere near as strong as last year (The Canes and Blues would probably be 3rd & 4th if they were). The Highlanders are annually average, even more so post-Aaron Smith and a big squad clean out. The two teams at the top? The two nz sides with largely the same settled roster as last year, except Ardie Savea for the Canes. They’ve both got far better coaches now too. If the Aussies are going to win the title, this is the year the kiwi sides will be weakest, so they better take their chance.
3 Go to commentsThe World Cup has to be the gold standard, line in the sand. 113 teams compete for what is the opportunity to make the pool stages, and then the knockout games for the trophy. The concept is sound. This must have been the rationale when the World Cup was created, surely? But I’m all for Looking forward and finding new ways for the SH to dominate the NH into the future. The autumn series needs a change up. Let’s start by having the NH teams come south every odd year for the Autumn/Spring series games?
8 Go to commentsWhat’ll happen when the AI models of the future go back in time and try to destroy the AI models of the past standing in their way of certain victory?
41 Go to commentsThanks, Nick. We (Seanny Maloney, Brett and I) just discussed Charlie as a potential Wallaby No 8, and wondered if he has truly realised how big he is in contact (and whether he can add 5 kg w/o slowing down). Your scouting report confirms our suspicions he has the materiel. No one knows if he has the mentality (as Johann van Graan said this week about CJ, Duane and Alfie B) to carry 10-15 times a game.
57 Go to commentsHe would be a great player for the Stormers, Dobbo should approach the guy.
3 Go to commentsGood article. A few years back when he was playing for the Cheetahs, he was a quiet standout for exactly the seasons stated here. I occasionally get to see his games in the UK, and he has become a more complete player and in many ways like an Irish player. His work ethic is so suitable to the Leinster game. I wonder if Rassie would have him listed somewhere.
3 Go to commentsResults probably skewed by the fact that a few clubs have foreign fly halves in their 30s, but most teams have young English scrum halves. Results also likely to be skewed by the fact that many teams rely on centres and fullbacks to provide depth at 10, whereas they will need to stock a large number of specialist backup 9s.
1 Go to commentsI really get the sense that when all is said and done, the path of least resistance will end up being a merger of Wasps & Worcester that essentially kills the Worcester Warriors brand and sees Wasps permanently playing at Sixways. I’m not saying that’s what should happen or what I want to happen. I just think it’s the easiest rout to take and therefore, will be what happens. Wasps will definitely return to play first, and I suppose it all depends on if they can find support at Sixways. If people turn up and support Wasps in that community, at that ground, I bet they drop the Sevenoaks plan and just remain at Sixways. Under the radar but not totally unrelated, it looks as though London Irish are going to be brought back from the dead by a German consortium and look set to return, likely to the remade Championship. It’s set to have 12 clubs next season with 14 in 2025/26, what do you want to bet those extra 2 are Wasps and London Irish?
3 Go to commentsThe shoulder is a “joint” with multiple bones. You don’t “fracture” a shoulder, you fracture any one or more of the bones that make up a shoulder.
2 Go to commentsOh dear, bones too suspect to continue?
2 Go to commentsBold headline considering the Canes and Blues are 1 and 2 and the Brumbies were soundly beaten by the Chiefs and Blues. Biggest surprise is Rebels 4 Crusaders 12 - no one saw that coming. If Aus are improving that’s great 👍
3 Go to commentsAnna, You are right, we need to have patience whilst the others catch up to England and France. Also it is the PWR that has been the game changer for England. the RFU put money into that initially at the expense of the Red Roses. I was sceptical at first but it has paid off in spades.
1 Go to commentsI think Matt Proctor became a 1 test AB in the same fixture. Cameron is quality and has been great this season, can’t believe’s he only 27. Realistically how would he not be selected for ABs squad this year. Only Dmac is ahead of him as a specialist 10. With Jordan out, it will come down to where and when Beauden Barrett slots back in, and where they want to play Ruben Love. Cameron seems an absolute lock in for the wider squad though. Added benefit of TJ-Cameron-Jordie combination at 9, 10, 11 too.
1 Go to commentsFarcical, to what end would someone want to pay to keep this thing going.
1 Go to commentsHavili, our best 12 by a mile, will be in the squad, if he stays fit. JB is the most overrated AB in the last 50 years.
61 Go to comments