Footy club boss Luke Sayers is pictured on a luxury European holiday as 'd*** pic' scandal is investigated by the AFL

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Carlton president Luke Sayers is the subject of a bombshell investigation by the AFL after a graphic sexual image was sent from his X account to a female executive connected to the club - but new pictures show the scandal doesn't appear to have cast a shadow over his overseas holiday

The former Price Waterhouse Coopers CEO's X account posted an image of a mystery man's penis, and tagged the account of a top female management figure with a company linked to Carlton at 5.41pm on January 9.

The public post was directed at the executive's social media account, although the mother-of-two does not appear to have used X since 2017 and does not follow Mr Sayers on the platform.

Sayers noticed the development after the photo had been online for 12 minutes, at which point he hastily deleted the image and apologised to his followers, claiming he had been targeted by cyber criminals.

'Sorry, my account has been hacked - please ignore all posts,' he wrote.

Sayers told Daily Mail Australia, 'This is outrageous. I'm investigating and will leave no stone unturned finding out who did this to me and my family.'

Luke Sayers is pictured with his daughters during a luxurious family trip to Europe, during which he was criticised for not responding to questions about the scandal over a graphic image being sent from his X account

The Carlton president (pictured on holiday with his daughters) is now under investigation by the AFL's Integrity Unit

When news of the AFL investigation broke last Friday, the Carlton club released a statement saying the team will cooperate with the Integrity Unit after notifying the league about the scandal.

Sayers had been criticised for the delay in making his statement while he was in Europe on a luxurious family holiday with his wife and daughters, and he did not return calls from colleagues at his private company, Sayers Group, according to News Corp.

Sayers reportedly failed to answer questions for a week while there were calls for him to stand down from the top job at Carlton until the matter was investigated, and it's also been claimed that he disconnected his phone.  

Now photos posted on social media show a seemingly carefree Sayers smiling as he lapped up the trip, which took in spots such as Paris, Milan and the Italian ski fields.

He has since come back to Australia and returned to work.

The female executive tagged in the hijacked post was at a Carlton Respects luncheon, as part of a program run by the club to help counter violence against women, six months ago. 

Sources close to the executive told Daily Mail Australia she was distraught over the incident and 'completely shaken up' but that had since returned to work full-time.

Sayers (pictured top left while skiing with his family in Italy) branded the sending of the photograph 'outrageous' and pledged to do everything possible to unmask the culprit

The Blues boss (pictured with star Patrick Cripps last year) reportedly didn't return calls from work colleagues after the scandal broke  

Her family are said to be furious that she has been dragged into the mess.

Leading cybercrime investigator Ken Gamble told Daily Mail Australia the key to unmasking those responsible for the graphic photo being posted from the account was swift action.

'The public often don't believe that these types of sexually explicit hacking cases are perpetrated by hackers, but these cybercrimes are on the rise and are more prevalent now than any time in history,' he said.

'There are specific steps that need to be undertaken to investigate Mr Sayers' case, including the urgent discovery of digital data trails that would otherwise be private, such as IP subscriber logs to identify the whereabouts of a computer or phone user [behind the attack].'

The incident comes little more than a month after the prominent executive figure and his Cate, who have four daughters together, sold their sprawling mansion in Melbourne's east for more than $16.5million.

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