Ex-bouncer sought notoriety with Tindall video, Crown says

Jonathan Dixon. Photo / File / Otago Daily Times

A former bouncer from Queenstown who posted footage of English rugby player Mike Tindall being kissed by an old flame on YouTube was after the notoriety after he failed to sell the footage to UK tabloids and was fully aware he had no right to take the footage, the Crown says.

The jury trial of former bouncer Jonathan Dixon, who is accused of stealing the footage, began this morning in the Invercargill District Court.

Dixon has been on bail since 2011 after allegedly dishonestly obtaining the CCTV of the incident, which happened in the Base bar in Queenstown in September 2011, during the Rugby World Cup.

He faces a charge of dishonestly accessing a computer on September 13, 2011.

In her opening, Crown solicitor Mary-Jane Thomas said Dixon had no right to take the footage for the purpose of making money from it.

"The Crown says this was an opportunity made in heaven if you wanted to sell something and make some money and this is what the Crown says was the accused's intention from the very beginning."

She said he asked a junior staff member at the bar to download the footage for him, and while he waited searched the internet for how to make money from selling a story to tabloid newspapers, and contacted a newspaper.

For various reasons, however, he was unable to sell the footage, and three days later put it on YouTube accompanied with a lecture to Tindall, who is married to the Queen's granddaughter Zara Phillips.

Because he had failed to sell it, he sought instead notoriety, which, clearly, from the dialogue that accompanied the Youtube posting, he "quite liked", Ms Thomas said.

The Crown's case was that the footage was not his to take and that he knew he had no right to do take it, she said.

In a brief opening, Dixon's lawyer said Dixon's defence would be that he honestly believed, as a person who worked at the bar, he had a right to access the footage.

The trial is expected to take four days.