Penrith Panthers playmaker Tyrone May has formally admitted he produced four sex tapes without the consent of the women in them - including two videos shot during an orgy with a teammate.
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The 23-year-old sat quietly in Parramatta Local Court on Friday as his lawyer entered guilty pleas on May's behalf to four charges of intentionally recording an intimate image without consent.
Penrith NRL coach Ivan Clearly watched from the public gallery. Both men declined to comment outside court.
Four charges accusing May of distributing the videos - leaked to media in March 2019 - were withdrawn by prosecutors after the guilty pleas were entered.
Agreed facts tendered to court reveal two of the videos came from May 2018 when a woman the footballer met on Facebook joined him, Penrith reserve-grade player Liam Coleman and an unidentified man in an apartment in Kingswood.
While in the room, May, Coleman and the woman engaged in a consensual sexual act as the unidentified man performed an act on himself.
Later, while performing a sexual act on Coleman, the woman became aware there were several mobile phones in the room.
"Don't be filming," the woman told the men.
She never saw May or anyone else recording but in March 2019 found out via a Facebook message that a video existed.
The woman watched the video and immediately recognised herself, Coleman and May, and then made a police statement.
A second recording from the night in the Kingswood unit surfaced later, depicting the woman with the unidentified man as Coleman and the filmer, May, watched on.
"Once again, the complainant did not consent to the recording being made," the agreed facts state.
May was arrested and charged two days after the woman formally reported the crimes to police.
News of the arrest led another woman to identify herself in two other leaked sex tapes involving May stemming from her encounter with him at a Best Western motel in Coffs Harbour in February 2018.
That woman told police she'd noticed May grab his phone and seemingly reply to a text message while they had consensual sex at the motel.
At no time had she consented to filming, the agreed facts state.
May is due to return to Penrith Local Court on January 31 for sentence.
One of the first players stood down under the NRL's "no fault" stand-down rule in March, his playing future remains unknown.
May played 19 games at the Panthers between 2017 and 2018 and one Test for Samoa.
The NRL Integrity Unit will decide any punishment after court proceedings are complete, a league spokesman told AAP.
No other men in the videos have been charged over its production or distribution.
Coleman, the son of South Sydney great Craig Coleman, left the Panthers in 2019.
He was found guilty in October of assault with an act of indecency after groping a woman at the Coogee Bay Hotel in November 2018 in the company of NRL player Zane Musgrove.
Coleman and Musgrove are appealing their sentences of one-year intensive corrections orders.
Australian Associated Press
