Canterbury JC – 9 October 2004 –

Stipendiary Steward Mr S. C. Ching has laid an information pursuant to Rule 304 alleging Licensed Trainer Mr M. R. Pitman was guilty of misconduct.

Rule 304 reads as follows.

The charge reads as follows ?

Mr Pitman had indicated on the information that he did not admit the breach of this rule, and he confirmed this at the hearing.

Stipendiary Steward Mr S. C. Ching said that this charge was brought against Mr Pitman because of the abuse and obscene language directed at Miss M. L. Hampton in the birdcage after the running of Race 9.

There was a great deal of evidence given during this hearing. Following is a summary of that evidence.

Mr Ching called two witnesses to support this charge.

Miss M. L. Hampton gave evidence that she was starting to unsaddle her horse and that she had her back to Mr Pitman, but that she could hear him roaring at her. He said "what the f? were you doing" and "couldn?t you f?ing hold it". This language was repeated several times. Miss Hampton said she turned around but didn?t know what to say to Mr Pitman. Miss Hampton also said that during all of this time Mr Pitman was yelling at her in an abusive manner.

Miss Hampton confirmed at the hearing that the words used by Mr Pitman were "fuck" or "fucking".

The witness was asked by Mr Pitman if he had used the "F" word while she was talking to the owner. In answer Miss Hampton said that he had used the word quite a few times, but she could not say whether or not the owner would have heard these words.

Assistant Stipendiary Steward Mr J. M. McLaughlin gave evidence that he was in the birdcage after the running of Race 9 when he overheard Mr Pitman making, in the witness's opinion, unnecessary use of the "four letter word". The witness also said that Mr Pitman was obviously upset and angry and speaking very loudly.

The witness was asked by Mr Pitman where the owners were at the time of this incident, and it was established that they were close to Miss Hampton.

Mr Pitman gave evidence and explained why he was so angry after the running of the race. He also said that he did not use the "F" word as stated by the witnesses.

Mr Pitman called Mrs Jill Coupland and her daughter Jenna as witnesses and they both gave similar evidence. Mrs Coupland was asked by Mr Pitman if he had used the "f ? u ? c ? k" word. The witness replied ? "not in my earshot anyway".

Mr Pitman also called Raewyn Starr and Daniel Harvey to give evidence, and these two witnesses stated that Mr Pitman had not used any obscene words.

After hearing the evidence we adjourned to consider our decision. On returning to the enquiry room the following decision was given.

"Mr Ching and Mr Pitman we have heard evidence from Miss Hampton and from Stipendiary Steward Mr McLaughlin. Both these witnesses said quite clearly and unequivocally that Mr Pitman used obscene language and of course used abusive language as well. Mr Pitman has said that he did not use obscene language, although he does agree that he had a go, so to speak, at Ms Hampton over her ride.

The witnesses that Mr Pitman called either said that they did not hear the language or that he did not use the language.

Having heard all this evidence we prefer the evidence of Miss Hampton and Mr McLaughlin as we consider their evidence is more credible. We also find that such language and abuse as was used does amount to misconduct and we therefore find that the charge of misconduct has been proved.

Penalty: Mr Ching made submissions that a fine would be an appropriate penalty in this case. Mr Pitman said that a fine of $5-00 would be too much as far as he was concerned.

We then adjourned to consider the matter of penalty. We had reached a decision on this matter and were about to return to the Enquiry Room when we were advised that Mr Pitman wanted to say something further. On returning to the enquiry room we listened to what Mr Pitman had to say but it was not relevant to the question of penalty. We then gave the following decision.

"We have had a talk about penalty and we came back here. If there was something you had said that made us want to reconsider we would have gone back and done that, but we had already decided on penalty and do not see any reason to change that so you are fined the sum of $300."

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