MELBOURNE — Not for the first time, G Media, parent company for AbbyWinters.com, has been accused of producing sexually explicit content that violates the country’s increasingly stringent decency laws – and taking advantage of impressionable and even under age models. According to news sources, authorities raided five different properties belonging to G Media as part of the Operation Refuge morality program. Computers were taking into possession, as was footage suspected of being illegal due to its sexually explicit lesbian and solo sex nature.
In addition to carefully viewing the aforementioned sexual footage to determine its legal status, detectives plan to investigate reports that some models have not yet reached the age of majority. In particular, one model’s driver’s license is believed to indicate that she was 17 years-of-age when she performed for the company.
Known for its more feminist-minded and natural-bodied all-female content, G Media’s AbbyWinters.com website is reported to have 30,000 subscribers and contain more than 370,000 photos, 4,000 videos and nearly 1,200 mostly teenaged models.
Although 34-year-old company director Garion Hall was arrested at his home and interrogated during the early morning raid, he was later released, likely to face charges of producing and profiting from illegally frank sexual content in Victoria, where such work is illegal. If found guilty, Hall faces a maximum penalty of two years in prison.
Not content to hold Hall responsible for the company’s possible violations, charges may be brought against all of G Media’s 30 employees. Yarra CIU Sen-Det Steven Boskovski assured the press that more arrests are likely once the company’s “hierarchy” has been determined.
Inspiration for the raids on Hall’s home, two storage facilities and two offices came from The Herald Sun, which contacted the police with documentation about the company’s popular but potentially illegal all-female content, which has been on the market since 2000. Among the paperwork included in the collection are documents which allege that Hall was warned in 2007 about the likelihood that his company was in violation of state and federal laws.
The Herald Sun claims that former employee Steen Vestergaard has stated that he was assured the company’s films were legal but that independent legal consultation by Vetergaard resulted in a very different conclusion, including the likelihood that his continued employment with G Media would be cause enough for prosecution.
Former model Liandra Dahl is said to have claimed G Media used cash payments in order to woo teenagers into performing sex acts that are illegal when in the presence of a camera.
“It is utterly unethical to mislead very young people into choices that could affect their entire life,” Dahl lectured.
Common methods for recruiting models are said to include posters on traffic lights and poles near trendy night spots. One poster lists as much as $800 in payment in exchange for a single-day shoot.
