A VILE culture of sex abuse is rife in horse racing—with innocent young girls being bullied into bed by randy stable lads.
A News of the World investigation has uncovered a sleazy catalogue of incidents which have turned the Sport of Kings into the Sport of Creeps.
Our revelations will shock and shame the upper-crust bosses who run the industry, exposing how youngsters just out of school are:
FORCED to take part in orgies as part of grotesque initiation ceremonies,
BLACKMAILED into sex in exchange for easier chores, and
STRIPPED naked and left in horseboxes on the way to high-profile race meetings.
After more than a decade of witnessing the sordid real-life secrets at some of Britain's top training yards, former stablegirl Maggie Bremner, right, is spilling the beans. Now a crusading rep for the Transport and General Workers' Union, she told us: "Pressure on young girls for sex is frightening. I know what it's like. It happened to me early on.
"I broke down and had sex with the head lad at one stable when he threatened to make life hell for me.
"I loved horses and didn't want to leave. And that's what would have happened if I hadn't done what he wanted.
"He threatened me with the worst jobs, the worst horses, and promised my life wouldn't be worth living.
"So I got into bed, shut my eyes, and got it over. It left me feeling pretty dirty and worthless."
Maggie, 34, added: "So many girls out there are victims. And the senior men are the worst, especially assistant trainers and head lads—those guys who go on to become trainers themselves.
"It doesn't make a difference if they're married or not.
"Young girls are told, ‘Sleep with me or have a rough time.'
"I remember one terrified girl rushed to tell a trainer that she'd been threatened and all he did was shrug his shoulders and say, ‘You know where the gate is.'
Pervert
"Girls were treated as if they were just there for sex. The attitude of a lot of the lads was that we weren't good enough and shouldn't even be handling horses.
"At one stable the bosses called us by the names of the horses we looked after, not our real names.
"But the younger lads would just call us sluts—and treat us like that."
Another ex-stablegirl, who cannot be identified because she still works in racing, told us: "I was for ever having my boobs grabbed, or being felt by some old pervert trainer who was giving me a hand up on to a horse.
"It was just so blatant and seen as a joke.
"He'd put his hands between my legs and leave it there while I got up. It was just crude and offensive.
"But you either put up with it or get out.
"And that's where the trainers knew they had us. We loved horses and wanted to work with them.
"One girl was put through the most appalling initiation ceremony.
"Two of the lads had sex with her at the same time, then abused her with all sorts of props—it was awful.
"I remember another girl who was picked on and groped an awful lot. Once she turned up to a race meeting in the back of the horsebox—and she'd been stripped completely naked.
"She had to walk out covering herself as best she could.
All the lads thought it was a giggle but in any other walk of life that's sexual assault, plain and simple.
"And the number of stable girls who got pregnant seemed very high. Then they'd have to have an abortion or get out."
Campaigning Maggie added: "I know one girl who had FOUR abortions.
"And I witnessed the most appalling harassment of another girl who'd been for a termination.
"The lads were chasing her around with a vacuum cleaner.
"The poor girl was mortified. But the trainers and head lads wouldn't do a thing."
A third former stablegirl—who has worked in the North, Newmarket and abroad—revealed how female staff are forced into degrading sex initiation games.
Stripped
The 36-year-old told us: "When new girls arrived in our yard the lads would strip them to the waist and tie them to the horse walker—a sort of mechanical roundabout that exercises the animals.
"Then they'd switch on the machine and as it whizzed round they'd throw buckets of cold water over them. It happened to me and I was terrified. Another time two lads overpowered me in the horsebox on the way to the races.
"They held my arms and stripped me to the waist. What appalled me was how the head lads and assistant trainers turned a blind eye to it all. One thing's absolutely certain, I would never let my kids go into racing after all that I've seen and had done to me."
When we tackled Rupert Arnold, chief executive of the National Trainers' Federation, about the scandal he said: "Nothing of this nature has been brought to my attention."
But our shock findings are backed by a report by Baroness Mallalieu QC, new director of the British Horseracing Board, who admitted: "Discrimination and harassment are common in racing yards.
"I'm not against banter or joking but times have moved on and unless there is a major change it will only be a matter of time before there is some extremely embarrassing litigation."
The message is clear. This isn't horseplay it's sex abuse—and it's time the beasts were reined in.
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий