Fiona Viotti’s lawyer trying to remove her videos from PornHub
By Thursday at noon, one of the videos, featuring a nude woman purporting to be Viotti on a bed, was still live and had been viewed more than 20,000 times.
Fiona Viotti (formerly Fiona Mallett), centre, among water polo players. | Image: Twitter
The explicit pictures and videos of the ex-Bishops Diocesan College water polo coach that have been circulating on social media and messaging apps have now been uploaded to PornHub, the world’s most popular adult entertainment site.
By Thursday early afternoon the video, featuring a nude woman purporting to be Fiona Viotti on a bed, had been viewed more than 20,000 times.
The 30-year-old Viotti resigned with immediate effect last week amid allegations of a sexual affair with a matric pupil.
The school has since reportedly appointed an attorney to investigate what the principal described as “serious misconduct”, though no criminal investigations have been initiated as the pupil was 18 at the time.
The prestigious boys’ school is in Rondebosch, Cape Town. School principal Guy Pearson said earlier this week that several boys “have been affected over a number of years”.
He asked for pupils to come forward and assist them with their investigation into the claims. Viotti also resigned from her managerial position at Western Province Schools Water Polo last week, the body told News24.
Western Cape police spokesperson Colonel Andrè Traut repeated on Thursday that a police case has not been laid.
An initial report published in the Weekend Argus reported that the pupil had tried to break off the relationship and Viotti responded with threatening WhatsApp messages in an effort to dissuade him.
News24 reports that her attorney, William Booth, confirmed that he would be taking steps to have the video removed from the site. The site has systems in place to allow victims of revenge porn to have their content removed from the site.
Booth has warned that sharing the video content could possibly be illegal.
“I’m investigating the whole issue of the distribution of this material,” said Booth, counsel for both Viotti and her family.
“It is illegal,” Booth stressed on Thursday.
“It is illegal to distribute any pictures or videos which may potentially have pornographic content. It is against the law.” The lawyer was likely, however, referring to sharing such content without the permission of the subject, and particularly when it is “revenge porn”. Distributing pornography is not illegal in South Africa, per se.
The distribution of such content can also amount to “cyberbullying”.
He said that, although it was “quite a process” to have something removed from the internet, he warned that it could be investigated by the police.
“Anybody distributing it, must be aware that it is illegal.”
RELATED: Former Boks coach’s niece resigns over alleged sexual affair with Bishops boy – report
Earlier this week, Viotti’s father, Dave Mallett, who is a history teacher at the school and coaches the first rugby team came under fire for a letter he allegedly sent to parents at the school.
Look at this pathetic letter to #Bishops parents from Fiona Viotti’s dad (who also happens to be the head of rugby and the housemaster at the school). They’re going to protect ‘Fi’ at all costs pic.twitter.com/pf1NO1J7tj
— Sibongile Mafu (@sboshmafu) October 15, 2019
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(Compiled by Kaunda Selisho)
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