Hornets star’s anger at race abuse charge
HORNETS star Lewis Galbraith has spoke of his anger at having his ‘name dragged through the mud’ after he was accused of racially abusing an opponent.
As the Observer reported on Saturday Galbraith was slapped with an eight match ban following an incident that took place during Hornet’s ill-tempered Summer Bash clash with Oldham at Blackpool in May.
The 22-year-old centre’s case was heard by a Rugby Football League independent operational rules tribunal, which deemed that the player used ‘verbal abuse based on race/ colour’ during an incident in the final minutes of the game.
Roughyeds submitted a complaint regarding the incident, which saw Sammy Gee sent from the field.
But on Wednesday an independent tribunal over-turned the decision finding the centre not guilty of the charge.
Speaking to the Rochdale Hornets website Galbraith said: “People will say we won here, but it doesn’t feel like it. I’ve had my name dragged through the mud, and plastered across the back page of my local newspaper. Nobody won here tonight but I’m just glad that I can get back to playing rugby league and helping the boys finish the campaign strong.
“I also want to thank (Hornet CEO) Adam Bates, the board, staff and my teammates who have been behind me on this along with the supporters who have backed me while this has been going on.”
Hornets CEO Adam Bates said: “I’m pleased that this matter has been put to bed. We have said since the charges were made that we felt that the small amount of evidence there was against Lewis was poor, inconsistent, and not independent. We said that we would fight it as far as we could to get the right decision, and we have.
“I feel that there must be lessons learned from this investigation. I appreciate that the RFL must investigate and take seriously any allegations of abuse, and as always we gave them our full cooperation on this.
“However, I was disappointed to see the RFL and Oldham RLFC publish the charges online, which subsequently were picked up by local and national news outlets. I don’t think this did any favours to Lewis, the investigation, our club or our sport.
“It’s important that player welfare is taken into consideration with all of this. This case had the potential to set a very dangerous precedent within our sport. I‘m just glad the tribunal saw it the same way that we did, and I’ll look forward to seeing Lewis back in action very soon.”
The panel heard evidence from members of both clubs including players and staff and the appeal lasted three hours on Wednesday, July 12. The panel felt there was contradictory and insufficient evidence to charge Galbraith.
“People will say we won but it doesn’t feel like it”