Judge Hermann Retzlaff. PHOTO: Gregor Richardson A Dunedin judge has been slammed for saying a victim needed to "man up" after his ex-partner shared intimate photos of him. Judge Hermann Retzlaff was sentencing Amelia Catherine Seales, 26, at the Dunedin District Court this week. Seales had earlier pleaded guilty to breaching the Harmful Digital Communications Act by sending multiple "intimate" photos of her former partner to third parties. The offending happened in October, during a long-running saga in the aftermath of their 2019 relationship. But the judge called the situation a "lovers’ tiff" and questioned why police were pursuing the charges. "This is about a guy who cheated on his pregnant partner, I mean give me a break, I’m sorry," he said. "It feels like he needed to man up a tad." The judge said a harsh sentence was not warranted. "This guy running off playing the victim: I’m sorry, I just don’t see it," he said. The victim was angered by Judge Retzlaff’s comments. "The judge is wrong," he said. "The justice system is nothing but a joke here." His concerns were shared by an activist and a senior criminology lecturer who worried the judge was "victim blaming". While police prosecutor Sophia Thorburn accepted there had been some "tit for tat" and "no-one’s really a saint in all this", she stressed the messages were "harmful" to the former partner. Judge Retzlaff told the defendant she should not have sent the messages and settled on deferring her sentence for 12 months. "Sending out compromising information about a victim does put them at risk ... of ongoing harm in the social media world," he said. There was some suggestion the victim continued to contact Seales. "He’s playing games. "He’s wasting our time, to be honest," the judge said. The court heard Seales was a single mother and had taken responsibility for the offending. Tautoko Tāne (previously Male Survivors Aotearoa) chairman Philip Chapman said this was a glaring case of victim blaming and the situation would have been different if the gender roles were reversed. "We’re always just seen as either the perpetrator or the patriarchy. "There’s a double standard and it’s been going on forever." It was already difficult for male victims to come forward, Mr Chapman said. "I’m not trying to dismiss the terrible things that happen to women, it happens all the time, we all know that ... But a judge coming up with that one ... " University of Auckland senior criminology lecturer Dr Claire Meehan said while women and gender minorities were more likely to be victimised in this way, men could also be victims. "Harmful ideas about masculinity can make it more difficult for male victims to seek support or be taken seriously," she said. "Comments suggesting that a victim should ‘man up’ reinforce the idea that men should be resilient or unaffected." The judge’s comments raised "serious concerns about victim blaming" and appeared to shift attention away from the offending and towards the victim’s character. "The fact that someone may have behaved poorly in a relationship does not remove their right to bodily and sexual privacy," she said. The Chief District Court Judge’s chambers did not offer any comment but confirmed it had not received any complaints relating to the comments made. felicity.dear@odt.co.nz
