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Bouncer who leaked Tindall video found guilty
ESPN Staff
April 23, 2013
England's Mike Tindall finds himself at the centre of attention, Auckland, New Zealand, September 29, 2011
Mike Tindall found himself at the heart of a media frenzy for all the wrong reasons © Getty Images
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Players/Officials: Mike Tindall

The nightclub bouncer who uploaded clips of Mike Tindall and his ex-girlfriend in a Queenstown bar during the 2011 Rugby World Cup has been found guilty of accessing a computer system dishonestly and obtaining property he had no right to. He will be sentenced in June.

Jonathan Dixon, 42, who pleaded not guilty, accessed the CCTV footage and uploaded it to YouTube, leading to a massive international media frenzy as Tindall had only married Zara Phillips six weeks' earlier.

"I didn't steal anything," Dixon told the Otago Times after the verdict. "It's something I had done 100s of times before. The Crown obviously presented its case really well."

Asked if he had any regrets about pleading not guilty, he replied: "No, of course not. I didn't dishonestly access that computer system. If it was the first time I had saved something off it or put something on a USB, that would be something else. But since I'd done it a 100 times before that makes it different."

Dixon, who said he did not make any money out of the affair, uploaded the clip which included warnings from him to Tindall that he should "be loyal to the royal". But the prosecution claimed he took the footage knowing he had no right to it and with the aim of profiting.

"He is on YouTube giving a lecture to Mr Tindall, apparently on what marriage vows mean," prosecutor Mary-Jane Thomas said. "He started off trying to make money out of it and ended up with notoriety."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

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