Second Green Island player sentenced over secret filming

Oliver Bugden was sentenced to nine months’ supervision and ordered to pay $3000 to the victim. Photo: Gerard O'Brien

A second player from a Green Island rugby team who secretly filmed a woman in bed and sent it to a group chat is part of a culture of misogyny, a judge says.

Oliver Irving Bugden, 24, appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday after admitting counts of making and posting an intimate visual recording.

Dunedin rugby sex-tape victim 'consumed by anxiety, fear and shame'

Judge Evangelos Thomas refused a discharge without conviction and Bugden was sentenced to nine months’ supervision along with an emotional harm payment of $3000.

"There is very high public interest in dealing to the misogyny that still runs rampant in 2025 New Zealand," the judge said.

The sentencing comes just a couple of weeks after his co-defendant and team-mate, 24-year-old Thomas Ryan, had a discharge without conviction declined for almost identical crimes — and received the identical penalty.

The incident drew pointed criticism from New Zealand Rugby and resulted in a commitment from the Green Island Rugby Club to work with Otepoti Communities Against Sexual Abuse to put on workshops for players — something that may be rolled out region-wide.

The pair were members of Green Island’s Premier 2 team, known as "The Battlers", when Ryan met a woman during a night out.

After they returned to his home, he surreptitiously used his phone to record her performing a sex act, footage of which he then sent to a group chat of more than 60 people, including other team members.

Ryan added the caption "up the battlers".

One of the recipients of the message was his flatmate, Bugden, who returned home later.

He went into the bedroom, along with another man, where he found the pair.

The victim immediately hid under the sheets and while the third man lifted the covers and used the torch on his phone, Bugden made his illicit recording.

He then sent the footage to the same group chat.

"The single biggest factor was you sent this video to 65 rugby boys for them to laugh over," Judge Thomas said.

"Imagine the shame and humiliation you caused."

The court heard Bugden had since engaged in regular alcohol counselling.

While he did not have representative-rugby aspirations, he was planning to travel overseas and play the game.

There may be "hoops to jump through" that would make international travel more challenging, the judge said, but that was not enough to avoid conviction.

"What an appalling insult that would be to [the victim] if I had done that," Judge Thomas said.

"It’s what our parents teach us: you stuff up, you pay the price, you learn, you move on."

But moving on had proved difficult for the victim, who told the court she had become "frustrated, moody and withdrawn".

"I hope you never ever treat a woman the way you treated me," she said.

A Green Island Rugby Club statement issued last month said it continued to acknowledge the "deeply distressing" impact the episode had had on the woman and her family.

Workshops, which would occur next year, would focus on "respectful behaviour, accountability and preventing harm", it said.

The club was also working on a code of conduct, to be finalised before the 2026 season.

A statement from New Zealand Rugby said it had supported Green Island since the news broke and the measures to be undertaken would "equip players with the knowledge and tools to help shape a sporting environment that is welcoming, safe and inclusive for all".

Ryan and Bugden were stood down from their team’s final two games of last season, but the Green Island Rugby Club refused to comment on their future eligibility.

Sexual Violence