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Racehorse Trainer Fined After 'Truly Shocking' Incident Over Female Employee

Racehorse Trainer Fined After 'Truly Shocking' Incident Over Female Employee

Recorded by the victim on her phone, shows Liam Bailey shouting, cursing and eventually lunging at her in a violent incident.

Robert Mann

Robert Mann

Racehorse trainer Liam Bailey has been fined £4,500 for a "truly shocking and violent" incident with a female employee at his yard.

Footage of the incident, recorded by the victim on her phone, shows Bailey shouting, cursing and eventually lunging at her in what a disciplinary panel described as "a truly shocking incident" in October 2019.

Representing himself at a hearing on Thursday, Bailey sought to explain that the incident was the culmination of difficulties between himself and the member of staff.

Liam Bailey was fined for the 'shocking and violent' incident with the female worker
Liam Bailey was fined for the 'shocking and violent' incident with the female worker

He claimed the ex-member of staff in question was repeatedly late to work, including on this occasion, but added: "I still shouldn't have acted how I did, I accept that."

Bailey and the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) agreed on the facts of the case in advance of the hearing, sparing the need for a witness appearance by the member of staff, who left Bailey's employment the following week and now works at another yard.

On the day in question, she was late at the yard for evening stables, having had what she described as "car trouble".

By the start of the available footage, the staffer was working inside a stable with a horse and Bailey was standing just outside.

"You were late, you were f****** late," he shouted at her.

"Get it into your head - you were late! It doesn't have to be anybody else's fault if you were late!"

The staffer replied: "If you ever try and hit me..." at which point Bailey wrenched aside a wheelbarrow and advanced into the box, shouting: "I don't give a f***! I don't give a f***!"

The footage ended as he reached for her mobile phone.

Charlotte Davison, representing the BHA, said the pair "somehow ended up on the floor" in a "wrestling match".

"It had been a build-up of things," said Bailey, who is based in Middleham, North Yorkshire.

"I should have been more professional and just nipped it in the bud."

Delivering the verdict, David Fish QC told Bailey: "This was a truly shocking incident involving appalling language, violent and threatening behaviour on your part, culminating in you grabbing the young lady by her arm in an effort to obtain a mobile phone, which you must have known was filming your behaviour.

"The footage which we have seen, each member of the panel has found to be very disturbing indeed and it paints you on this occasion in a very bad and poor light indeed.

"This was done in the confines of a stable in which a racehorse was present and that could have had terrible consequences, had that racehorse reacted in the wrong way."

Featured Image Credit:

Topics: Horse Racing