{"id":358316,"date":"2026-01-08T04:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T04:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/358316\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T04:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T04:40:14","slug":"leigh-leopards-release-statement-in-response-to-tesi-niu-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/358316\/","title":{"rendered":"Leigh Leopards release statement in response to Tesi Niu incident"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Leigh\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Leigh Leopards have released a statement following the recent social media allegations made against centre Tesi Niu.<\/p>\n

A message appeared on Niu\u2019s own Instagram account from a person purporting to his partner last week, accusing the Leigh centre of abuse with images also being posted.<\/p>\n

The Instagram account was deleted a short time after, and Leigh have now put out a statement that includes words from owner Derek Beaumont, who provides an account of the situation and outlines that both the player and his partner are being supported.<\/p>\n

The statement read: \u201cThe club is aware of social media activity of concern from one of its player\u2019s account, that of Tesi Niu.<\/p>\n

\u201cClub owner Derek Beaumont said: \u201cThe club can confirm that the player\u2019s account was accessed externally and without his knowledge or consent and deleted a short period thereafter.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u201cWe were instantly aware of this as it happened. As a club we have policies and procedures and employ a Player Welfare Manager who is a qualified counsellor.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u201cOur first port of call in these circumstances is to ensure the welfare of our player and any external party that may be involved. This was immediately initiated.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u201cHaving since personally spoken with Tesi and Kiana individually and at length and then our Player Welfare Manager and Head Coach, I am completely satisfied that they are both being fully supported.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u201cI can also confirm that there is no official complaint to the club regarding the player nor to any relevant authorities. To that end the club will make no further statements about the matter and would welcome supporters\u2019 trust in the clubs\u2019 processes and findings.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n

Niu is approaching his second season as a Leigh player, having made the move from the NRL to join the Leopards ahead of the 2025 campaign. He scored 12 tries in 30 appearances for club last season.<\/p>\n

Check out the latest episode of The Serious About Rugby League Show on our YouTube channel here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leigh Leopards have released a statement following the recent social media allegations made against centre Tesi Niu. A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-358316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}