The private photos ended up in the ‘wrong stream’
It’s one thing to unearth embarrassing photos of the past from your personal archives – it’s another when those embarrassing photos are dug up from your work email.
An outback Queensland mayor was forced to apologise when the IT staff for the council discovered he had sent his nude photos from five years ago through the council’s email system.
Diamantina Shire Council Mayor Geoff Morton said the pictures were meant to be transferred from his personal phone to his personal email account but that they ended up being delivered “via a wrong stream by accident”.
“I’m sorry it happened,” Morton told ABC, adding that the council adhered to due process.
In March, Morton came clean to the council, upon orders of the Regional Conduct Review Panel, regarding his error of using his council email account for personal business.
As reports of the incident surfaced in the media last week, the mayor no longer explained the reason behind the photos. He was unsure, however, why the IT staff decided to share them with other councillors.
“The council IT expert was trawling through my council email account and found them and deemed it that he should share them with other people and also inform the CEO of their whereabouts,” Morton said.
The review panel heard the complaint against Morton, and ordered the mayor “be counselled by an appropriately qualified IT person about how not to repeat the misconduct”.
The panel said the training should focus on ensuring the councillor knows how to send personal emails from his phone without using the council’s server, and that he limits the use of the council’s resources to matters related to council work.
“I can confirm that orders of the Regional Conduct Review Panel have been complied with,” a spokesperson from the local government department said.
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