‘He has no integrity, he’s a mongrel’
Woman’s motel heart attack prompts call for resignation of leading racing steward,
A grieving husband is calling for the resignation of a top racing industry investigator, revealed to have been with the man’s wife in a motel the night she suffered a fatal heart attack.
Lynair O’Connell was rushed to Christchurch Hospital after suffering cardiac arrest.
She had been with Ross Neal, the co-chief stipendiary steward for the Racing Integrity Unit, which was set up to combat drug-taking, sexual offending, corruption and other activities that might bring the industry into disrepute.
Blair O’Connell, a Motukarara breeder and trainer, said his wife wanted to become a stipendiary steward and Neal, based in the North Island, was helping her.
‘‘He’d come down every six weeks or so . . . she’d meet up and have dinner with him. They discussed about her becoming a stipendiary steward, how you go about it . . . and she came home and told me all about it.’’
In fact, he said, Neal had taken the opportunity to conduct an affair with her for more than a year.
Lyn O’Connell had also been battling cancer for two years.
Mike Godber, general manager of the Integrity Unit, said Neal rode to hospital with O’Connell in an ambulance after she collapsed.
Neal called his co-chief stipendiary steward, Nigel McIntyre, for help and McIntyre picked him up from the hospital, Godber said.
Together they went back to the motel, collected O’Connell’s clothes and wedding rings and dropped them back at the hospital, leaving before family arrived.
Blair O’Connell learned his wife was critically ill only by a phone call from the hospital. He thought she’d been in town with a friend.
She died a few days later in hospital and a coroner’s investigation is under way.
O’Connell is angry about Neal and McIntyre’s actions that night.
He said Neal could not champion ‘‘integrity’’ after having an affair with a vulnerable employee (Lyn O’Connell worked as a casual stenographer for the Integrity Unit) who was sick with cancer.
Blair O’Connell confronted Neal about the affair by phone. Neal sent a text saying it was a ‘‘stupid thing we did’’ and that he was ‘‘eternally regretful’’.
Neal, who is married, confirmed to the Sunday Star-Times that he was with Lyn O’Connell at the motel. ‘‘We were having dinner at a restaurant, she dropped me back, we had a cup of tea and that was it, and then she collapsed.’’ He would not comment on the affair.
Godber said Neal was in Christchurch in a private capacity. ‘‘We didn’t pay for the flight, we didn’t pay for the hotel.’’
McIntyre said he was at home on the night of the incident and got a call to go and ‘‘assist’’ Neal. ‘‘That’s all I wish to say.’’
O’Connell said he suspected his wife and Neal had been having an affair and had confronted her about it six weeks earlier.
When he found out his wife had been at the motel when she had the heart attack, he phoned Neal demanding to know the truth.
Initially Neal denied the affair. Then: ‘‘He rang me back and admitted he’d been having an affair with her for about a year and a half, which just broke my heart.
‘‘He only admitted it after I threatened to go to the Racing Minister and the Racing Board.’’
Blair O’Connell said Neal’s behaviour was ‘‘absolutely disgraceful’’ and he should not be in his job ‘‘because he has no integrity, he’s a mongrel’’.
He said there should also be ramifications for McIntyre. ‘‘If that was one of their wives that this had happened to, they would want the truth and want people to have rung them straight away and said ‘your wife’s had a heart attack’.
O’Connell said he had had to tell the truth to his teenage children, which was very hard. ‘‘It’s been killing me inside. I don’t sleep, I’ve lost 22kg since my wife died. I still love her and always will.’’