BONUS SERIES: Levittown Episode 3 | The Hunter

Olivia Carville (0:01)

A quick note, this is Episode 3 of a six-part series. If you haven't heard the prior episodes, we recommend going back and starting there. It should also be noted that this series explores sexualized imagery involving minors and violence. Please take care when listening.

Late one night, after a day of reporting in Levittown, I called Margie from my drive home, and she told me she'd turned up something big.

Margie Murphy (0:36)

I told Olivia I'd found some people who were looking into the same website where the Levittown girls had appeared. They were halfway across the world, in New Zealand.

Olivia Carville (0:47)

I was like, what? In my many years of coverage Thank you for, covering Tech for Bloomberg. I've had very few stories take me back home. To me, New Zealand is a little slice of paradise at the bottom of the world, the place where traffic jams and missing dogs make the nightly news.

Now, Margie was telling me that women in New Zealand were also being harassed on the very same website where the Levittown girls were posted. And in New Zealand, the local cops were taking notice.

Douglas Nuku (1:32)

So, my name is Doug, I prefer Doug, but Douglas Nuku.

Margie Murphy (1:37)

One of my sources introduced me to Doug, who's in his early 50s, tall, shaved head. He's a detective in New Zealand, stationed at the top of the South Island, in a small town called Blenheim.

Douglas Nuku (1:50)

No traffic lights in Blenheim, no traffic jams, no congestion of people or commercial buildings.

Olivia Carville (1:56)

So, is it…

Margie Murphy (1:58)

I'm just imagining less crime there?

Douglas Nuku (2:01)

Not necessarily.

Margie Murphy (2:04)

Doug is brusk and no nonsense.

He looks like he was born to play the role of cop.

And in fact, he sort of was.

Douglas Nuku (2:12)

So, I'll put it out there. At nine years old, my father left. Once my father left, basically our worlds fell apart in terms of structure and discipline and behaviour. My brothers fell hard. My brothers were into gangs and gang members, so they fell straight into trouble, straight into prison.

I went and saw them in prison once, and the first thing they said to me is, don't you ever come back here? Don't you ever come and see us again?

And I basically left from there, and that was the end of it.

Margie Murphy (2:46)

But Doug went the other way, into law enforcement. He's been on the police force for over 20 years now, working mostly on drug-related crimes.

One day in 2019, he got a call that changed his career.

Douglas Nuku (3:03)

So one day a colleague of mine phoned me and said, basically, I've got this friend of mine who's been bombarded with horrific photographs for several years.

Images of her face taken from social media sites. And on those images, there were often captions detailing how pretty she was and what would you like to do to her in terms of sexual preferences and violations. There were also images of her face with male erect genitalia, or males ejaculating on her image and then reposting it back online. She had been to another police station to make a complaint, but due to capability and understanding, they didn't know how to deal with it. And she is at her wits end to the point where she was potentially suicidal at one stage. Is there anything you can do?

Margie Murphy (3:59)

Doug hadn't seen this level of online abuse, stalking and harassment before. He needed to hear what happened firsthand.

Douglas Nuku (4:07)

So, the first time I met the victim, I was obviously at work, it was late. Typically, I'd set up a nice soft interview room where you sit on a nice soft couch, get a cup of tea. I would start off, try and get to know the person, try and build a nice, easy rapport really quickly. You want to make things as easy as possible.

She was pretty apprehensive. It was a physical toll as well as a mental toll, and you could see it in her face when she was talking to me.

Margie Murphy (4:35)

The woman, who was not willing to be interviewed and will remain anonymous in our series, recounted how her email inbox was constantly flooded with explicit pictures and violent threats.

Douglas Nuku (4:47)

She was able to provide some screenshots and information about what's been going on.

Margie Murphy (4:53)

Every time she got these messages, she'd block the sender and take a screenshot, and she'd add it to her growing pile of digital evidence. Had you seen anything like that before?