WVLX director Brendan Abbey’s abusive threat to journalist

A DIRECTOR of the Mortlake saleyards has threatened to ban a female The Weekly Times journalist from the yards and put her “in the gutter where you belong”.

Brendan Abbey in January last year on the day of the first sale at the Western Victoria Livestock Exchange, Mortlake.

A DIRECTOR of the Mortlake saleyards has threatened to ban a female The Weekly Times journalist from the yards and put her “in the gutter where you belong”.

The Weekly Times did not cover the 2700-head weaner sale at the Western Victoria Livestock Exchange last week following the threat from co-director Brendan Abbey.

Mr Abbey told The Weekly Times reporter in a phone call the day prior to the sale: “I never, ever want to see your face at f---ing WVLX again ... if I f---ing do, I’ll put you out in the gutter where you belong”.

Mr Abbey’s comments came during a call in which he disputed aspects of a story published in The Weekly Times on December 21.

That story highlighted that WVLX Operations Pty Ltd and parent company SELX Pty Ltd had yet to remove ­co-director Rohan Arnold from the board of the companies despite promising to do so 12 months ago, immediately after Mr Arnold was charged with attempting to import ­cocaine from China.

The Weekly Times decided after Mr Abbey’s comment that no reporter would attend Friday’s cattle sale.

In a statement this week, Mr Abbey apologised “for my words, which are uncharacteristic of me”.

“My frustration is also over what appears to be ongoing lack of support for WVLX from The Weekly Times and what appears as a personal attack of the directors,” Mr Abbey wrote.

The Weekly Times stands by the accuracy of its December 21 report and coverage of WVLX.