How could Phillip Barnes, a man who planted a camera in a gym changing room, be promoted to chief executive of a Crown entity?
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.
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How a pervert who planted hidden cameras in Auckland gym changing room became CEO of a crown entity • Source:
How could Phillip Barnes, a man who planted a camera in a gym changing room, be promoted to chief executive of a Crown entity? Phillip Barnes was wrestling with alcohol issues and a porn addiction. Source: rnz.co.nz
By Veronica Schmidt of rnz.co.nz
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.
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.
A man who repeatedly planted a spy camera in an Auckland gym s changing rooms to film people naked was promoted to chief executive of Crown entity International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ) after the offending took place.
Phillip Barnes, who earned $250,000 a year, wanted to keep his name, and that of IANZ, secret. But Police, RNZ and NZME opposed name suppression all the way to the Supreme Court. Police also fought his bid to be discharged without conviction.
He can finally be identified today, after Barnes failed to convince the Supreme Court it should hear another appeal on the grounds he had suffered a substantial miscarriage of justice and that his case was of public importance.