‘Headbutts’, threats, ‘insulting language’ in an industry under pressure

Tempers were running high at the Richmond greyhound track. A trainer and his partner were unhappy with a racing steward’s direction, and they made their displeasure known in what was described by a witness as “terribly insulting language”.

“Fat f---ing c---,” the woman said to the steward, numerous times, before telling him she’d kill him, she’d bash him and she’d have his job over an instruction affecting the couple’s dogs, including one named Tombstone Boy. She then attacked the steward physically, trying to “headbutt him first”, a witness said, before “throwing punches at him”, and leaving him with marks to his head and neck.

Another night, another fight – this time at the Newcastle track, where two trainers faced off. One, with a dog in his hand, shouldered the other in the chest, and was repelled with a forceful push that sent him rolling down the hill.

Files on physical and sexual assault and harassment in the industry were tabled in parliament this month.Credit: Getty Images

He gave the dog’s lead to his stepson. “Hold this lead,” he told the lad, “while I f--- this c--- up.” They traded punches, then one of the men “legs it”, according to an interview with the Greyhound Welfare and Integrity Commission, yelling “you’ve done your licence now”.

The cases were among a dossier of files on physical and sexual assault and harassment within the NSW greyhound racing industry tabled in parliament this month, prompting a call for a probe into human-to-human behaviour within an industry that’s most often under scrutiny for its treatment of animals.

The cases also prompted questions about why industry participants were still not required to update their police check when they renewed their registration.

The government is already holding an inquiry into the greyhound racing industry after an explosive letter to Racing NSW from its former chief veterinarian, revealed by this masthead last year, alleging the treatment of dogs was barbaric and that the industry was unsustainable. The Drake inquiry is due to report by the end of July.

The dossier about assault and harassment, particularly of officials in the industry, contained cases investigated between 2019 and this year.

The cases also included a matter at Dapto that involved a veteran trainer. He’d had a bad day; he’d been threatened by another trainer and also by the head of the Rebels bikie gang, who was a neighbour. “I feel like my whole family’s been harassed and bullied by these trainers,” he told a GWIC hearing.

He let the stress get the better of him, he said, so he used his stomach to push a man, who then toppled onto a chap behind him and made the second man fall to the ground.

In another case, at Gunnedah, a man approached a woman who was working at the racetrack and rubbed his “penis and groin area” against her backside, before saying, according to a witness, “oh sorry, baby”.

Animal Justice Party MP Emma Hurst said “my call for papers into physical and sexual abuse, assault and harassment within the NSW greyhound racing industry has unearthed some extremely disturbing cases”.Credit: James Brickwood

The man later tried to explain his behaviour by saying he had been holding a dog that was attracted to groins, then, when a witness said there had been no dog present, he denied it had happened at all.

In a case at Casino, a trainer slapped an assistant manager across the face, and later blamed the extreme duress of not being able to pay his rent because his dogs had been scratched from their races.

A registered dog owner was also investigated when he tried to block a GWIC staffer from inspecting his kennels, accusing the inspector of being a “grub” and a “little f---wit terrorist” and saying words to the effect of, “you’ll get turned upside down if you come in here”.

Animal Justice MP Emma Hurst said NSW should follow the lead of Victoria – which had a review of victim support and complaints across all types of racing – by holding an inquiry.

‘If GWIC won’t even require updated police checks after staff are assaulted, how can anyone trust this industry to protect its workers – or the animals in their care?’

Animal Justice MP Emma Hurst

“My call for papers into physical and sexual abuse, assault and harassment within the NSW greyhound racing industry has unearthed some extremely disturbing cases, indicating that abuse may be rife within the greyhound racing industry,” she said.

“While many of the documents are now under privilege and cannot be publicly released, the documents that have been released paint a very distressing picture of the behaviour of many involved in this industry.” She called on the government to either hold a separate inquiry, or to widen the existing inquiry to look into the problem.

Hurst also said the concerns in the immediate aftermath of the Richmond incident, in 2019, that industry participants had not been required to have a police check when they update their registration, still have not been addressed. The aggressor in that incident would not have been allowed onto the track if police checks had been required, a document in the dossier said.

“If GWIC won’t even require updated police checks after staff are assaulted,” said Hurst, “how can anyone trust this industry to protect its workers – or the animals in their care?”

The tabled material also includes a letter from a steward to the GWIC leadership, highlighting that stewards were under enormous scrutiny, and saying the Richmond incident was a wake-up call. “The safety of the GWIC and track staff [is] imperative … we all need to return home to our families … without fear.”

The documents did not address assault and mistreatment of animals. But the GWIC website said 10 trainers had been banned indefinitely and two for life last year after breaching rules. The life bans were for trainers who killed several dogs, one by shooting them in the head and dumping them in a river, and the other with blunt force trauma to the head.

A GWIC spokesman said the commission had a zero-tolerance approach to conduct breaches.

People who wished to participate in greyhound racing needed a police check upon application, and they were required to tell the commission if they had been charged with an offence once registered, the spokesman said.

A spokesman for Gaming and Racing Minister David Harris said, “sexual harassment and assault have no place in society and no place in the racing industry”.

“The [GWIC] treats all matters relating to participant conduct seriously and has a zero-tolerance approach for those found in breach of the rules,” the spokesman said.

“I am informed that in instances of criminal conduct, GWIC refers these matters to the NSW Police.

“Allegations of criminal activity in the NSW greyhound racing industry should be referred to the NSW Police.”

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