Barnes was wrestling with alcohol issues and a porn addiction
Photo: RNZ/Vinay Ranchhod
The police who turned up at International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ) wore plain clothes. They discreetly presented the warrant, asked for USB sticks and entered the general manager's office. But it's hard to fly under the radar in a country as small as New Zealand. An IANZ staff member recognised one of the men ferreting through Phillip Barnes' stuff as a cop, and soon a story was doing the rounds at the Crown entity's Auckland headquarters.
But it wasn't the truth; Barnes managed to keep that secret until today. The story back then was the truth twisted into insignificance, the real tale scrubbed clean of guilt and perversion. It was the story of how Barnes was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was just at his gym when something unsavoury went down and now police were busy trying to rule out every fitness fan who was there when the incident happened. All of them under suspicion. All of them inconvenienced. Poor Phil.