‘Some claims include hazing . . . some flows into sexual abuse, as well as physical’: John Rule, lawyer

Perpetrators and enablers of alleged “horrific” hazing and abuse in the state’s $4.7bn horse racing industry may face court, amid a swell of allegations.

Perpetrators and enablers of alleged horror hazing in Victorian racing may face court.

Perpetrators and enablers of alleged “horrific” hazing and abuse in Victoria’s $4.7bn racing industry may face court, as law firm Maurice Blackburn investigates and prepares up to eight claims.

Maurice Blackburn lawyer John Rule said it was alleged some of the hazing had led into sexual and physical abuse.

One case had already been filed to court and “another half a dozen or so” claims were being worked on, he said.

They included “some pretty horrific stuff”, Mr Rule said.

“Some of them include hazing type stuff – it’s not just a bit of bullying, it’s pretty full-on and some of that flows into sexual abuse, as well as physical,” he said.

“There’s probably seven or eight (claims) in total that we’re looking closely at and are at various stages of the process.”

It comes as the release of a landmark report into how Victoria’s racing industry has handled allegations of sexual assault, harassment and other abuse is delayed because of the sheer number of claims and “breadth of information” received.

The highly anticipated independent Review into Victorian Racing Industry Victim Support and Complaint Processes, overseen by racing integrity commissioner Sean Carroll, was scheduled to be released this month but is now likely to be handed down in July.

Racing integrity commissioner Sean Carroll is overseeing the landmark review.

Eighty-eight people — with more than double the number of males than females and including jockeys, drivers, trainers, stable and kennel hands, officials and other employees – had spoken out by the end of last year, but it’s understood many more have come forward since then.

Current or historical victims of physical and sexual assault and abuse or sexual harassment in Victoria’s thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing industries were encouraged to report their experiences via a new hotline, an in-person interview, online survey or written submission in March 2022, when the review was announced.

Mr Carroll said “just going through the number of participants and the breadth of information” had taken longer than expected, and the report was now in final draft stage.

It was hoped it would be publicly released next month.

He declined to reveal the total number of alleged victims who had now come forward, saying the focus was on helping and supporting those people and developing the best possible system for racing industry workers in the future.

On releasing the review’s interim progress report in December last year, Mr Carroll said the “courage and dignity” of those sharing their stories would help shape a better, safer industry.

“Candidly sharing their experience allows us to better understand what happened to them, how they have been let down, and make sure we do everything we can to support them,” he said.

‘A trauma-informed approach’ has guided Mr Carroll’s review into racing industry abuse

“A trauma-informed approach is at the heart of safeguarding the wellbeing of everyone who takes part in the Review. The integrity and independence of the process and participant privacy and confidentiality are paramount … the review is a historic opportunity to ensure that what happens away from the track is as important to the integrity of racing as what occurs on the track.”

The interim report reveals victim survivors have been left frustrated and distressed by what they perceived as the historical inaction of racing authorities to appropriately respond to their complaints of sexual and physical abuse.

“(They) expressed their dismay at what they perceive as ‘cover-ups’ and complaints being ‘swept under the carpet’. For some, the threat of retribution is palpable. Many have spoken about not being offered guidance on what to do or where to complain, and simply tolerated ongoing mistreatment as a result,” the report notes.

A stablehand’s story of gang rape cover-up

It took *Diane more than four decades to speak of the horror she claims to have experienced at a Melbourne racing stables as a teenager. She told her story to Mandy Squires in 2018, aged nearly 60 and in very frail health, saying she was far from the only young girl and boy subjected to horrific abuse in the racing industry in the 70s. Her story can now be told.

The day after *Diane was allegedly gang raped, she spent the day in bed.

The day after that — sore and in shock — the 15-year-old got up and went back to work, cleaning out stables and brushing racehorses.

The teenage stablehand’s attempt to report the alleged rape by five men in a dorm room near a Melbourne racetrack was thwarted when the person she turned to for help told her the local police station was closed at night, and sent her off to bed “to get some rest”.

“That sort of thing” happened a lot to girls in the racing industry, he said, but added he’d do his best to make sure it didn’t happen to her again while she was working at the stables.

She believed him when he said the police station was shut that night, so no official report could be made, “because he was an adult and I was only a child”.

And based on the lack of shock from the other girls working at the Melbourne racetrack at the time, it seemed entirely likely it had happened to most, if not all, of them at one time or another, Diane said.

As a teen stablehand in the ’70s, Diane was told rape was not uncommon. Picture: Getty

On being told of the rape by a crying Diane in the hours afterwards, she claimed the boyfriend of one the female stablehands started laughing and asked if they’d “done it up the bum? Up the arse?”

He then calmly went and fetched her glasses and clothes from the dorm room, which she had left behind when she was eventually allowed to leave.

More than four decades later, Diane said she could not forget the smell of horses, men’s sweat, and marijuana, and could picture the roof of the dorm room she was raped in on that winter night in 1975.

“It’s burned in my mind,” she said.

She was able to describe in detail the events of the night, which started at the Turf Club Hotel, and allegedly ended up with her being dragged up a set of stairs and pushed into a room by a leading stablehand and raped by a number of the men waiting there.

“Here you go boys, fresh meat,” she alleges he said, as he opened the door and pushed her into the room.

“Within minutes one guy grabbed me and held my arms over my head and within minutes I was naked and within minutes they started having sex with me, raping me,” Diane said.

“It hurt because I had never had sex before but after a while it didn’t hurt anymore. I tried to resist at the start but that’s when one guy said ‘don’t struggle, don’t move or you’ll get hurt’. I had no choice, they had my arms pinned back behind my head the whole time, so I was helpless.”

Decades after her alleged gang rape, Diane says the horror was ‘burned in her mind’.

It was the end of her first week on the job, after being forced to leave school because her parents had split up and her truckie dad, who she lived with, didn’t have enough money to support the family.

A one-time apprentice jockey, Diane’s father had spoken with the horse trainer his only daughter was going to work and live with – and personally checked out the Melbourne stables – before leaving her there with two bags of clothes.

He died never knowing his daughter was raped and that the man he entrusted with her care had failed to report the rape to police.

Diane told her ageing mother about the rape, only after reporting it to police decades later.

“I lost Diane back then. I don’t know what Diane could have done and what sort of person Diane would have been if that never happened,” she said, adding Diane didn’t turn out very well in the end.

She turned out bitter, broken, with fragile mental and physical health, untrusting of most people, and very much alone.

*Name changed to protect the alleged victim’s privacy

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