He had seen a psychotherapist, completed 190 hours of voluntary work and wanted to be discharged without conviction and given permanent name suppression. Then in early 2020, while his case was still going through the justice system, he was promoted to IANZ chief executive.Ī few months later - in June 2020 - Barnes appeared in the North Shore District Court before Judge Clare Bennett for sentencing. In June 2018 he pleaded guilty to making an intimate visual recording. Police visited the IANZ offices in 2017 and removed Phillip Barnes' computer Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrellyįollowing the police visit, Barnes remained as IANZ general manager and while in the role - and unbeknownst to the organisation - he was charged by police in February 2018. Barnes said the officers had visited IANZ to clear him from the suspects' list.Ĭourt documents show the Accreditation Council was aware the police who took Barnes' computer were investigating a case in which a spy camera had been found in a gym's changing room. In a statement to RNZ, the Accreditation Council, which governs IANZ, said after police attended the office there was a full investigation during which Barnes insisted he was not the offender. Shortly afterward, police turned up at IANZ's Ellerslie premises with a search warrant and took Barnes' computer. On 23 November, one of his victims spotted the camera. He captured six people on video, including a naked couple who took a shower together and made sexual gestures, and a woman in her underwear with bare breasts. On at least four days over a fortnight, he went to the gym and used Velcro to attach a spy camera beneath the sink in the unisex changing cubicles. He was addicted to porn, an issue that had deepened after he began suffering from erectile dysfunction. My desire for name suppression was entirely driven by a want to protect those innocently hurt by my actions."īarnes videoed his victims in November 2017, when he was general manager of IANZ. However, it was later discovered IANZ, and the Accreditation Council that governs it, had no idea he was making this argument about what was best for the organisation - and when it eventually found out, it opposed name suppression.īut in a statement released through his lawyer yesterday, Barnes continued to say he had only ever sought name suppression to protect others.Īfter apologising to his wife, family, former employer and colleagues, he wrote: "While the victims are protected by law, I have tried to protect the rest of you, where I have been able, from the ramifications of my actions. He initially won permanent name suppression after arguing he had an important role to play in the coronavirus response, as laboratories were processing Covid-19 tests.īarnes said if he was identified and had to resign, IANZ would have no experienced governance to lead it through the pandemic.
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