Australian tradie dead after winning $22 million Lotto in NZ and descending into drug underworld
An Australian man who descended into a world of drugs after winning $22 million in Lotto Powerball while living in New Zealand has died.
Josh Winslet became an instant multi-millionaire after striking it rich with a winning Lotto ticket while living in the South Island in 2018.
However, his winnings
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The Spinoff
15 hours ago
- The Spinoff
How a man googling PORN HUB ended up on the Herald's website
The Herald killed the picture of PORN HUB man. But it can't kill the idea of PORN HUB man. A Herald report last Friday began with a profound truth. 'Internet users are suffering,' it read, before adding six unnecessary words, 'outages across New Zealand this morning.' The story was a boilerplate account of the blackout, which later reports would reveal was the result of the Australian navy flicking the wrong switch and accidentally wiping out half our infrastructure. So far, so New Zealand. But internet users who hadn't been severed from the mainframe by a clumsy seaman or petty officer were able to take a closer look at the article. They saw something awry. It was illustrated with a picture of a man sitting at a computer with Google open on his web browser. His search was easily visible if you zoomed in a bit. 'PORN HUB,' it read. How did this image make it to the country's website of record? Why was it used in a story about internet outages? The obvious answer is that a bleary-eyed online editor added a stock image to the story without looking closely. But as sleuths on Reddit pointed out, PORN HUB man's bookmarks bar contains websites that don't feature on Getty, including Stuff and the Herald. The only possible conclusion is someone met with a local photographer and sat down to be snapped typing 'PORN HUB' into Google. More websites and search requests may also have been involved, as it appears 'porno-hub videos – has already been clicked. The original story gave its image credit to George Heard, a photographer who works with the Herald in Christchurch. Emails to Heard were met with a request to refer questions to NZME's in-house comms person. The Spinoff did that, even though it suspected NZME's in-house comms person would be unlikely to divulge useful information. Its emails were not answered. A reverse image search was more successful. It showed PORN HUB man may originally have been used in 2021 on stories by Anna Leask and David Fisher about revenge porn and child sexual abuse images. It's possible that in the Herald's image library, the photo wasn't titled in a way that indicated its true nature. Whatever happened, PORN HUB man lay dormant until the morning of June 6, 2025, when a web editor typed something like 'internet' or 'computer' into the Herald CMS, and attached a photo that at first glance looked appropriate, but on closer inspection was of a man furiously googling PORN HUB to find genres such as 'teen', 'hottest porn videos', 'porn videos', 'gay porn', and 'recommended'. The mistake was spotted quickly. Herald staffers contacted by The Spinoff said the image was removed within 15 minutes, after it was queried in the corrections channel of the office Slack. It wasn't fast enough. Diligent Redditors captured the image. One post about it has been upvoted more than 2,100 times. Though some might be embarrassed, staff at the Herald appear to be taking the mistake in their stride. In a statement to The Spinoff, one summed up the reaction: 'I want you to know my available-for-publishing statement as an NZ Herald staffer is that the incident was 'funny as fuck'.'
Otago Daily Times
17 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Alexandra Lotto winner dead after downward spiral into drugs
The former boss of an Alexandra plumber who died after squandering a life-changing multimillion Lotto win on drugs remembers the man as having a ''bright future'' until he won the money. Josh Winslet — known for bagging a $22million Lotto win in 2017 while working in Alexandra — died in his South Australian home from health complications from excessive drug use, the Daily Mail Australia reported. His death came mere months after he was sentenced in the Adelaide District Court to three years and nine months' jail with a non-parole period of 18 months in 2022 after pleading guilty to supplying MDMA and possessing a firearm without a licence. The sentence was suspended on a two-year good behaviour bond, allowing Winslet time to show he had changed his ways. However, months later, he was dead, it was revealed this week. Mr Winslet had been working for McLellan's Plumbing & Heating in Alexandra for a couple of weeks when he won the Lotto ticket. His former employer, Rory McLellan, said that he remembered Mr Winslet as being a ''nice-natured young guy''. ''He had a bright future ahead of him until he won that money,'' he said. Once Mr Winslet won the money, Mr McLellan, an experienced businessman, attempted to assist the younger man by putting him in touch with business and financial advisers. However, he ''never saw him again'' after he won the money. In 2017, Mr Winslet spent his last $19 on a Lotto ticket — that ticket was a winner and Mr Winslet was an instant multimillionaire. The win was confirmed on a Thursday, and Mr Winslet initially said he would be back at work on Monday. Mr McLellan told him not to be silly. ''I said, 'there's always a job here for you but I could imagine you not wanting to come to work when it sinks in.''' Mr Winslet bought investment properties in New Zealand and South Australia, and some of his funds were put into a trust set up by his parents. However, he still had enough of his fortune to allow him to quit working as a plumber and bankroll a ''hopeless'' drug addiction. In August 2020, police found Mr Winslet in possession of 2.27g of cocaine and found nearly 30g of MDMA at his Adelaide property during a raid. In a compartment in the bathroom was a Mauser handgun and ammunition. During sentencing in September 2022, Judge Heath Barklay said because of the money that Mr Winslet had won, ''there was no motivation on your part to work or do anything other than enjoy'' himself. He was treated as a ''free ride'' by many, Judge Barklay said at the time. ''Although winning the Powerball was incredibly positive in many ways, the down side ... is that you lost motivation in life and contented yourself with living a hedonistic lifestyle punctuated by drug use,'' the judge said. Mr Winslet had battled two rare conditions since birth, and had a ''miserable childhood'', which included being bullied throughout school because of his ''physical deformities'', the Daily Mail reported. He underwent many operations to treat Duane syndrome and Goldenhar syndrome — both rare congenital conditions.
NZ Herald
a day ago
- NZ Herald
Kiwi ex-NRL player TC Robati cleared of rape, admits to indecent assault
The rape trial of a former NRL player has ended with him being found not guilty before he admitted to a different sexual offence which the judge described as 'creepy'. Just minutes after an Australian jury cleared Teui 'TC' Robati of two rape charges, the New Zealander admitted to unlawfully
