3 weeks ago
10
A woman has described being left humiliated and ashamed after a picnic jockey and a stable hand shared a sex video of her on Snapchat as well as showing it to a person at a barbecue.
In a statement read to the Victorian Racing Tribunal on Tuesday, the woman said it was “hard to describe what it feels like to know that at any moment anywhere, someone is looking at videos of me getting some kind of sick enjoyment out of it”.
The video was shared on social media, causing the woman to experience significant distress and anguish.Credit: Shutterstock
Picnic jockey Sebastian Galea, 20, and stable hand Seamus Fitzpatrick, 19, were on Wednesday suspended from working in the racing industry for 18 months.
They had appealed a decision by Racing Victoria stewards to disqualify them for 21 months in October last year.
They pleaded guilty to four racing industry charges that included recording a mobile phone video of an intimate act without consent on May 15 last year. They have not been charged with any criminal offences.
Galea pleaded guilty to posting a video on Snapchat that was obscene and harassing to another person between May 15 and May 16 last year, as well as engaging in improper conduct by showing a video to a person at a barbecue on May 17 last year.
Fitzpatrick pleaded guilty to posting a Snapchat story, tagging other licensed persons, that was offensive and defamatory on May 24 last year.
The tribunal panel of deputy chair Judge Marilyn Harbison, Josh Bornstein and Amanda Dickens ruled that the woman’s identity be suppressed.
In her victim statement, which was given in October last year, the woman said she found it difficult to sleep, was having nightmares and woke up crying.
“My heart starts racing, and I feel sick,” she said. “I have lost weight, I find my concentration levels are poor, I have developed anxiety, my self-worth has diminished, I have felt hopeless.
The video was shared on Snapchat.Credit: Bloomberg
“There have been days where I just don’t want to get out of bed. I would trade my life if I could, and if only I could turn back time.”
The woman said derogatory remarks made to her included, “It’s Viral Video Girl, can you do a video for me?”, “Didn’t know you were making home videos” and, “No wonder you have no friends”.
She said she had become emotionally detached, did not trust anyone and now preferred to be alone.
“I feel like I’ve lost so much and gained so little since this incident. My grief is heavy,” she said.
“I am worried that when my family and friends are on the internet, they are going to come across the video, and it fills me with shame and embarrassment.
“I will never be free from this nightmare. I want Racing Victoria to know about me and what I have suffered and what my life is like. What happened to me will never go away.”
The woman said she moved jobs and then moved interstate, which left her more than $8000 out of pocket, but could not escape the issue.
“Anywhere I went, people knew,” she told the tribunal on Tuesday.
She said she returned home after working interstate for two weeks because she needed to be back with her family.
Galea and Fitzpatrick appeared before the tribunal and read out statements saying they were extremely sorry.
They apologised and said that they had undertaken an online respect course.
Legal counsel for the defendants, Matthew Stirling, said it was recognised their conduct was very serious and worthy of punishment, but had been the result of a lack of maturity and a lack of education.
Galea and Fitzpatrick left school after year 9 to work full-time in the racing industry.
“It was foolish, immature, unthinking behaviour, but not deliberate cruelty,” Sterling said.
The tribunal heard Galea and Fitzpatrick had initially tried to “skew evidence” presented to stewards such as “talking about the complainant as not having been drunk” and their own level of sobriety.
Galea pleaded guilty to a charge of providing false and misleading evidence to stewards, while Fitzpatrick pleaded guilty to engaging in conduct that hindered the stewards’ investigation.
“These are not issues that just come out of an innocent lack of maturity, they are deliberate actions,” Judge Harbison said.
“It is a bit of a big ask for us to treat lying to the stewards in an inquiry as peripheral.”
Legal counsel for the stewards, Amara Hughes, said the incident was an example of behaviour the industry was trying to stamp out in response to a review handed down by the Racing Integrity Commissioner in September 2023.
The tribunal ruled that each defendant would be suspended for a total of 30 months, rather than disqualified, and the total time to be served was 18 months.
Harbison said the tribunal panel could think of “very few things more detrimental to the interests of racing or the reputation of the sport” than a participant recording sexual activity without consent.
“This is conduct worthy of significant condemnation,” Harbison said.
News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport are sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.
Most Viewed in Sport
Loading
