TELSTRA has been forced to apologise after full-frontal explicit photographs of scandal-prone rugby league player Todd Carney were found on a Telstra rental phone in Canberra.

Louise Hallem, 23, was stunned to find the photos left on a second-hand Samsung handset, lent to her by a Belconnen Telstra Shop while her own handset was being repaired.

After picking up the handset on Saturday morning, Ms Hallem says she looked through the memory and was stunned to find the clearly recognisable photos of Carney, in a lewd position, stored on the phone.

"I was shocked at the fact that Telstra gave me a phone that had, well basically, pornography, on it," she said.

"I was upset when I saw it, and then I realised who it was."

Todd Carney, now on a one-season deal with Atherton Roosters in the Cairns and District Rugby League, confirmed he had used a Nokia handset to take the explicit images of himself in front of the bathroom mirror while home alone late one night at his Goulburn home "about six months ago".

The player - expelled from the Canberra Raiders after a string of drunken and lewd misdemeanours - said he had forwarded the photos to a girl he met on social network site Facebook after she exchanged a lewd photograph of herself.

"She'd asked me to take them before … I don't want to go back to that night though."

He said he was at a loss as to how the photos ended up on the Belconnen handset, but speculated they may have been forwarded by an unknown person who picked up the Nokia handset he lost around January.

"They're the only ones like that I ever took, so, it must be them," he said yesterday.

He said he succumbed to the girl's multiple requests for a "naughty photo", eventually sending those he had stored on his phone.

"She sent me a photo then I sent her some back," he said.

"Obviously it's (the photos) in the wrong hands now."

Carney's manager David Riolo yesterday claimed an anonymous woman had attempted to blackmail him yesterday, asking for money to prevent making the photos public.

Ms Hallem said she never contacted Mr Riolo asking for money and has never met Carney.

Todd Carney has often posed for good causes.

Photo Above: Muscle men: Canberra Raiders players William Zillman (left) and Todd Carney as they appear in the Gods of Sport book. Pictures: PEDRO VIRGIL

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