Penrith Panthers fullback Daine Laurie has been misidentified in an online Daily Telegraph article listing former NRL players with criminal convictions.
Mr Laurie, born in 1999, has never had a criminal conviction.
However, a picture of the Bundjulung man was posted above the name and criminal history of a different Indigenous player, also named Daine Laurie (born 1984), who also played for the Panthers in 2010.
A screenshot of the article wrongly identifying Daine Laurie.
An editor's note at the bottom of the article states that the error was corrected immediately once it was brought to the outlet's attention.
"The Daily Telegraph published an image of the wrong Daine Laurie for a short period in this story due to a production error ... We apologise for the error," reads the addendum.
The older Mr Laurie (born 1984) played prop for the West Tigers and Penrith between 2008 and 2010.
In 2017 he was convicted of discharging a firearm with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and served three years in prison.
Wrongly identifying someone as a person with criminal convictions could be deemed defamation, which potentially carries substantial damages.
Daine Laurie (born 1984) was convicted in 2017 on serious charges, and spent three years behind bars. Credit: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images
In February last year, a Nyamal man who was misidentified by Channel Seven as the abductor of four-year-old Cleo Smith from a Western Australian campsite reached a settlement with the media outlet, which also apologised.
