Trainer escapes sex charges
Two years ago, a young woman was sexually assaulted by prominent horse trainer Michael Breslin during New Zealand Cup festivities. Despite compelling evidence – security footage, text messages and an admission – he was never charged by police. Why? Blair
Michael Breslin avoided charges and disqualification despite racing officials knowing of concerns about his behaviour towards women, a Stuff investigation finds.
When the man in the bar put his hand under the young woman’s dress, she froze. The fear held her in place. She would later tell a racing industry body how she was petrified, ‘‘playing dumb’’ in the hope he would stop.
Horse trainer Michael Breslin, then 54, was drunk. It was November 5, 2016, the first day of the prestigious week-long New Zealand Cup Meeting at Christchurch’s Riccarton Park. Breslin, an established trainer at Awapuni, Palmerston North, whose horses have topped $5 million in earnings, had raced three of his dozens of horses at the track that day.
The woman, then 18 – a track work rider whose name is suppressed – immediately recognised who he was when her fiance, a jockey, introduced them about midnight at the Racecourse Hotel Motorlodge , ‘‘the go-to’’ bar after race day.
Shortly after the meeting, Breslin started to grope her buttocks and silently slid his hand underneath her dress. She managed to text her partner, playing pool nearby, to ask for help. When he saw what was happening, he confronted Breslin. ‘‘Sorry, sorry,’’ Breslin is alleged to have said.
Breslin later apologised to the woman’s fiance and gave him $100 cash to take her out for dinner. The fiance recalled Breslin telling him: ‘‘I need to be more careful when I am drinking.’’
The young woman complained to the Racing Integrity Unit (RIU), the industry’s investigatory body, and the police.
Despite CCTV footage showing part of the incident, text messages and statements from witnesses, the police decided to warn Breslin. Police said the ‘‘evidential sufficiency’’ for a prosecution was not met.
In July 2017, the Judicial Control Authority (JCA), the racing tribunal, found the incident was proven on the balance of probabilities. Though Breslin argued it was consensual – ‘‘I got the wrong vibes’’ – the authority disagreed. At the time, the RIU pushed for a disqualification. Instead, the JCA gave him an $8000 fine.
Among the reasons the authority chose not to disqualify or suspend Breslin was the fact it was an ‘‘isolated incident’’.
The RIU appealed the decision, arguing it was ‘‘manifestly unjust’’.
‘‘Quite apart from the harm to the complainant, the fact that a senior trainer had sexually assaulted a young stable hand less than half his age at a racing industry event, if seen in any way to be condoned by the industry by way of an inadequate penalty, would have a significant effect on the reputation of the racing industry,’’ the RIU submitted, according to the decision of the appeals tribunal.
The tribunal found the penalty was inadequate, increasing it to $14,000, but did not impose any disqualification.
Further investigation by Stuff has found:
■ Racing officials are aware of concerns about Breslin’s behaviour towards at least six women. They received complaints of alleged sexual misconduct from two of them but were unable to take action due to a lack of evidence.
■ The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) is investigating the involvement of a senior detective in the handling of the sexual assault complaint against Breslin, and a separate sexual misconduct allegation against another Awapuni trainer, Roydon Bergerson.
■ A culture within racing where young women are afraid to speak out against older male perpetrators, with a warning system in place where they tell each other ‘‘to be careful’’ around certain notorious men. Industry leaders have told Stuff there is an issue with misogyny and the treatment of women within horse racing.
The Christchurch victim said she pursued a complaint with police and the RIU because she wanted to protect other women. Instead, Breslin was given what she considered a ‘‘slap on the wrist’’.
‘‘No trainer should be allowed to do that . . . and yet here he is still walking around training. I think he should lose his licence and never be allowed to set foot on a racetrack again.’’
Likewise, she was shocked he was never charged by police.
Police said the ongoing IPCA investigation prevented them from commenting about the case.
Breslin said he had owned the Christchurch incident immediately. ‘‘It was thoroughly investigated by the police, police decided it was not chargeworthy. I went through an investigation process with the racing industry for a long period of time, and the outcome was a severe penalty. I believe that process is done and dealt with,’’ he said.
During the incident, he’d been suffering from undiagnosed depression and had been selfmedicating with alcohol, he said. He had since stopped drinking and undergone a year’s worth of counselling. ‘‘I’ve acknowledged it, and I’ve acknowledged my weaknesses and flaws as a person because I did that.
‘‘I know it’s not right [what happened] and I’m not proud of it, but I didn’t force myself on her or anything like that, I’ve never done that to any woman.
‘‘I put up my hand and said what I did at the very start. I said I had my hand on a girl’s leg, on her bottom. There’s very clear CCTV footage of it. It was a dumbarse thing, the lights were on, it wasn’t in a dark corner.
‘‘I’ve told myself a million times ‘Why did you do it?’ I didn’t even know the girl.’’ He had apologised to her and offered to meet, but she had declined.
There was no evidence
Stuff has found the 2016 indecent assault is not the first time racing authorities have been alerted to Breslin’s behaviour. Former detective Bob Bevege used to be the central region racecourse inspector for New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR) based in Palmerston North, before the RIU was established in 2011.
Bevege confirmed he was aware of two incidents in the 2000s involving Breslin. The first related to a complaint from a teenager, who alleged he touched her inappropriately in the back of a horse truck, but the complaint went no further. Bevege confirmed Breslin was given a verbal warning for this incident. The woman declined to comment when contacted by Stuff.
A teenage apprentice jockey reported receiving unsolicited indecent messages of Breslin’s genitalia. Bevege said she had deleted the messages from her phone and the decision was made not to take the case further as there was no evidence. ‘‘The advice was if she received anything further to keep it on her phone, or she could go to the police.’’
The woman told Stuff she received the texts and complained to Bevege and that nothing came of her complaint.
Bevege did not keep any formal record of the two incidents. Asked why not, he said: ‘‘These sorts of things happened every day in racing, lots of things happen and you just deal with it on a day-to-day basis.’’ The RIU had interviewed him as part of its investigation.
After the Christchurch bar incident in 2016, it is understood RIU investigator Simon Irving made contact with several women to question them about their dealings with Breslin.
Breslin said he did not send the woman indecent images.
‘‘I wouldn’t send a photograph of myself to a girl without permission, and I didn’t. I asked her for one . . . but I didn’t send one.’’
Breslin understood the RIU had spoken to several women. ‘‘There’s nothing untoward in those incidents, and I deny them vigorously. Everything is rumour and hearsay and blown out of proportion.
‘‘I’d say
that I’ve done some things I’d never do again. But I’ve never forced myself on a girl, I’ve never asked anything from a girl, I’ve put my hands on someone’s leg and if they didn’t say yes I’ll move on, and that’s basically what’s costing me my life here.
‘‘I want to get this out of the way and to make sure it doesn’t have an adverse impact on my family. I’ve been guilty of being a drunken idiot, but I’ve not been guilty of sexual assault.’’
His attitude towards women was ‘‘100 per cent fine’’, and his female staff members had all been really supportive, he said. ‘‘I’ve employed a lot of female staff over the years, the RIU did a huge investigation over a long period of time. I don’t want to have to defend myself in public over these things, but I know that’s fashionable and I know that’s what you guys do.
‘‘I’ve had an awful lot of stress on my family and on my partner, I’ve really paid. That incident in Christchurch was a lifechanging thing.’’
Breslin’s actions ‘intolerable’
NZTR chief executive Bernard Saundry described Breslin’s actions as ‘‘intolerable’’ and was disappointed he wasn’t disqualified.
Saundry believes the RIU investigation was ‘‘thorough’’ but had been hampered by the ‘‘unwillingness of complainants to take matters further’’.
NZTR conducted its own ‘‘extensive review’’ of Breslin’s fitness to hold a trainers’ licence and placed conditions on it, including that he could not be alone with women in the industry and had to attend counselling.
‘‘It remains open to us to revisit that matter if new information is made available.’’
‘Nothing was ever proven’
Stuff’s investigation has found the conduct of another Awapuni trainer, Roydon Bergerson, was also recently scrutinised by police after a woman alleged he’d sexually assaulted her in late 2016.
Police said in a statement they investigated the complaint thoroughly, but the ‘‘evidential sufficiency’’ for prosecution was not met.
Bergerson confirmed he was interviewed by police in relation to the matter. The allegation was false, he said.
Stuff understands the woman has lodged a complaint with the IPCA about the police’s handling of the case and the involvement of a senior detective with links to the racing industry.
Bergerson is friends with Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Sheridan, who is based in Palmerston North and is vicepresident of the Manawatu¯ Racing Club.
Sheridan has been licensed to work for Bergerson as a stablehand since March 2012. The police officer is a part-owner of two horses that are both trained by Bergerson.
Bergerson said Sheridan had no involvement in the investigation into his conduct toward the woman.
Police and the IPCA have confirmed the investigation involves both the Breslin and Bergerson cases.
It is understood the IPCA is looking into Sheridan’s influence on the inquiries.
In a statement, police said Sheridan declared his conflict of interest from the outset and was not involved in either investigation.
Sheridan declined to comment.
A wider issue
Many of those contacted by Stuff did not want to talk about the industry’s approach to sexual misconduct, or the outcome of Breslin’s case. But others – who did not want to be named – spoke of an industry protected by an ‘‘old boys’ network’’.
A prominent trainer said Breslin’s behaviour was indicative of a deeper issue within the industry.
‘‘Most of them are girls who end up by themselves with him, and he’s a big-time trainer, you know? It’s s..., and alcohol is involved all the time too.’’
‘‘You’ll find there will be many people who will stand up for him, and 90 per cent of them will be men. Can you imagine how those girls feel?’’
Another trainer said he had witnessed misogynistic tirades which he says would have elicited bans in stricter countries such as Australia.
‘‘I think there’s a lot of bullying of women by some of those older males, and they’ve had a fairly free rein.
‘‘They’re living in the bloody 50s and 60s, some of these fellas, and they’re getting away with it. No-one will pull them into line. There’s no support for them [women] and there is support for the men, and that’s why women don’t report.
‘‘If a woman thought that she was going to be heard, she’d probably report it.’’
A prominent South Island trainer said he did not condone Breslin’s conduct, but he didn’t agree with comments about an issue with attitudes toward women in the industry.
NZTR boss Saundry said the industry authority had changed its rules in 2017, making sexual harassment a serious racing offence.
The Christchurch-based indecent assault victim still works in the industry and said she dreaded the possibility of seeing Breslin at the track. She encouraged anyone who felt they had been mistreated by him to speak out.
‘‘Every time I look at him he gives me the most creepy, horrible, disgusting smile. He’s the biggest creep in the world and I don’t think he’s sorry for anything.