Monday 28 November 2022 01:08 AM How furious topless sunbather Lily Cook confronted the men who took her photo ... trends now
A furious personal trainer says she confronted the men who took photos of her sunbaking topless on a beach only to be 'gaslighted' and told they were just taking shots of the 'landscape'.
Lily Cook was secretly snapped with her sister on a beach in Sydney's eastern suburbs on November 12 and only learned about the photographs hours later.
She complained to police but no charges were laid as it's not a crime to photograph people in public.
And Ms Cook's efforts to hold the group of men morally accountable and get an apology proved just as fruitless.
The PT said she was able to track down those responsible after the 'close up' photo began circulating in one of her social circles.
When she confronted the men over the image, they denied involvement and suggested she was blowing the situation out of proportion - claiming it was cropped out from a wider shot of the beach.
Lily Cook, from Sydney, (pictured) was secretly photographed while sunbaking topless on a Sydney beach earlier this month
But by analysing the photo, Ms Cook said she was able to debunk their claims and determine that she was directly targeted.
'These men (and I use that word generously) chose to create and corroborate in further lies, embellish stories and gaslight me rather than apologising and admitting this stark and obvious truth,' she wrote on Instagram.
'I can't help but think of how different this whole process would be if they had the strength and dignity to own their actions and how it can impact a woman.'
When she arrived at the beach, Ms Cook said she saw three men, two of which she knew socially and had many mutual friends with. The men were later joined by their girlfriends.
She always tanned topless, but didn't feel comfortable doing so while the men were around and waited until they were leaving.
But later that night the fitness instructor received a message from a friend asking if she had been topless at the beach, followed by a 'close up' photo of her laying on the sand.
'The person who sent me the photo confirmed who sent him the photo,' she said.
'This is when I realised a photo had been taken of me without my consent and had further been distributed.'
The images covertly taken of Ms Cook, who gave Daily Mail Australia permission to publish them. The differences between the two images unravelled a fake story she was told claiming she was accidentally caught in a wider landscape shot
Ms Cook contacted the men and their girlfriends in a group message and they claimed she was accidentally caught in a wider landscape photo posted to an Instagram story by one of their friends.
She claimed this was a lie because she and her sister were lying down in that image, but her sister was sitting up in the photo that was shared.
'Due to the quality of the image and the angle, it was clear one of the males had snuck closer to me to get a close-up of me topless,' she wrote.
Ms Cook said a man finally owned up to taking the photo off the phone of the man who originally took it, and then sent it to two friends who distributed it further.
But the man refused to make a statement to police.
No one involved in
