the times | Saturday November 14 2020 1GM RM 19
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culture of the club during their time
there.
“I have worked in male-dominated
environments most of my career, but
this was different,” one former employ-
ee said. Another said: “It was like some-
thing from the Dark Ages.” A present
employee said that the Jockey Club was
viewed by some as “a dinosaur state”.
Another former staff member said
that they received a “look of horror”
when they told a member of senior
management that they were gay.
In August Delia Bushell quit as the
Jockey Club’s chief executive, publish-
ing a resignation letter that made alle-
gations about the culture of the organi-
sation. She had resigned after being
told that she was facing disciplinary
action, following an investigation into a
complaint made against her by Tom
Manners, the head of marketing.
The investigation was conducted by
an independent barrister and overseen
by Ms Budd and Lady Harding. Among
the 22 complaints made by Mr Man-
ners was an accusation that at a JockeyA woman has been jailed after setting
fire to her £400,000 family home to
spite her husband of 27 years during an
“acrimonious” divorce.
Janette Higginson, 57, a mother of
three, rang police to report that the
estranged couple’s house in Firswood,
Manchester, was on fire.
“I’m not bothered, I am outside my
house now — it’s burning, it’s up to
you,” she told them.
It is thought she started the fire in
Club function Ms
Bushell turned her
back on him and
walked away. In re-
sponse Ms Bushell
complained of a
“stitch-up” that she
believed had been
orchestrated by
senior figures resistant
to the changes she had
been looking to imple-
ment since joining in Sep-
tember last year.
Ms Bushell also rejected the accusa-
tions against her, including one of
racism for citing a negative view of
George Floyd, the black man killed dur-
ing an arrest in the US in May, which
had been given by a black female polit-
ical activist. Ms Bushell had raised the
point during a broad discussion in
which she had proposed that the Jockey
Club support the Black Lives Matter
movement. She is considering legal
action against her former employers.
Her lawyers said her attempts to “elimi-majority of the specific alle-
gations” but they did point
to “a clear need for educa-
tion and training”.
Sources said that the spe-
cific complaint referenced in
the presentation was
filed by a female exec-
utive in 2018 and
included an alle-
gation of sexual
harassment made
against a senior
male figure at the
Jockey Club. The
subject of the
complaint has
told The Times
that the allega-
tion was “com-
pletely untrue”.
Sources have
nevertheless
described
what they re-
garded as
issues within theDrunken wife set fire to family home in rage over divorce
Charlotte Wace
Northern Correspondent
The Jockey Club, which has close links
to the royal family, faced complaints
about alleged sexist behaviour, bully-
ing, racism and homophobia, according
to a document uncovered by The Times.
The document, which was circulated
to senior figures at the racing club,
detailed how a number of grievances
raised by staff had to be investigated.
The Queen is patron of the club,
which owns 15 leading racecourses,
including Aintree, Cheltenham and
Newmarket, and generates revenues of
£200 million a year.
At the top of the organisation, which
was founded in 1750, is the board of
stewards. Baroness Harding of Wins-
combe, a Tory peer and the head of the
NHS Test and Trace programme,
joined the board in January 2018. The
recruitment executive Julia Budd has
been a steward since 2012.
In an email sent last December to the
board of stewards and other senior
management staff, Linda Bowles, then
head of human resources, shared a slide
that made reference to issues that had
arisen within the 650-strong work-
force, as part of a broader presentation
about diversity and inclusion at the
organisation. The document, Where we
were in 2017-18, which has been seen by
The Times, states that there were “a
number of grievances and inves-
tigations into allegations of
sexist, racist, homophobic and/
or bullying behaviour”.
It also stated that there had
been “evidence that in some
teams people were using lan-
guage and making jokes that
were inappropriate”, adding
that there had been “strong
anecdotal evidence to sug-
gest LGBTQ+ employees
were unwilling to ‘come
out’ for fear of impact
on their career”.
The slide sent by
Ms Bowles also refer-
enced “a specific
grievance that
named senior man-
agers, committee
members and ex-
ternal partners
which would
have been very
bad PR if it had
gone to tribunal”.
She added
that “on investi-
gation there was
no evidence to
support the
Jockey Club bridles at bigotry claims
nate misogyny, racism and other reac-
tionary forces” had been “thwarted by
false allegations deliberately curated to
oust her”.
In her resignation letter Ms Bushell
criticised the club for harbouring “long-
standing discriminatory undertones”
and wrote of “a male-dominated organ-
isation that has a troubling history of
ignoring serious complaints against
senior men and which seeks to discredit
and ostracise anyone challenging its
status quo”.
The Jockey Club strongly denied
these allegations.
The circumstances that led to Ms
Bushell’s departure have split the racing
community. After she published her
resignation letter, Simon Bazalgette,
who was chief executive before her
arrival, defended the club. “She painted
a picture I don’t recognise,” he said.
Nevin Truesdale, now the acting
group chief executive, who is accused
by Ms Bushell of conspiring against her,
has made a similar response.
If Ms Bushell pursues legal action
against the Jockey Club she could seek
to call former employees as witnesses.
It is understood that she may instruct
her lawyers to launch a claim against
those she believes were involved in the
alleged “stitch-up”.
In a statement, the Jockey Club said:
“Over the last ten years there have been
a very small number of formal com-
plaints raised by our employees around
the UK and each has been thoroughly
investigated. We always take appropri-
ate action to address any concerns and
learn any lessons for the future.”
The club also provided several testi-
monies from staff, who de-
scribed their working
environment as
supportive and
enjoyable. A
gay staff
member,
whom the
club asked
not to be
named,
insisted
that “senior
manage-
ment” dis-
played a “huge
desire” for his
sexuality not to be
“a taboo subject”.
A further statement
from the organisation highlighted
that for many years, outside its ground
staff teams, it had employed more
women than men and had one of the
smallest gender pay gaps in British
sport. It also pointed to a number of
equality and diversity initiatives within
the organisation, adding: “Any charac-
terisation to the contrary is false, goes
against the employee feedback of our
regularly renewed Investors in People
accreditation and in 2020 shouldn’t
even be up for debate.”An internal document
revealed allegations of
bullying, racism, sexism
and homophobia,
writes Matt Lawton
The Queen at Epsom last year with Julia Budd, who sits on the Jockey Club’s board of stewards
with Baroness Harding, below left. Delia Bushell, right, quit as chief executive in Augusty
nt
had
mple-
in Sep-jected the accusa-scribed their
environm
suppor
enjoy
gay
me
wh
cl
n
n
in
th
ma
me
playe
dddesire
sexuality
““““a taboo su
A further
fffrom the organisation hREX FEATURES/SHUTTERSTOCKJune using a lighter and a tin of furni-
ture polish, Minshull Street crown
court was told.
When firefighters arrived at the
house, where Higginson had lived for
36 years, they found her outside
covered in soot.
On the day of the fire, Higginson had
received a solicitor’s letter thought to
relate to the sale of her home.
The incident had followed a hate
campaign waged by Higginson against
her neighbours, builder and in-laws,
following the collapse of her marriage
to her husband, Steve. Higginson hadalready been made subject of a restrain-
ing order after harassing Mr Higgin-
son’s sister, Tracey Dunphy, following
the death of their father in 2018.
Lisa Boocock, for the prosecution,
told the hearing that the fire had caused
about £14,500 of damage to the down-
stairs part of the house.
“The defendant accepts it was a
deliberate act out of frustration, to
some extent it was revenge because of
the acrimonious divorce she was going
through,” she said. She told the court
that Mr Higginson “is concerned the
defendant has done this deliberately sohe’s left with nothing.” At an earlier
trial, Higginson’s lawyer, Emma
Hassall, said: “She had run a successful
business and a family home but she lost
her job and as a result turned to
alcohol.”
Sentencing Higginson, Judge John
Potter told her that her behaviour “was
nothing more or less than a disgrace”.
He said: “Earlier that day you had re-
ceived a solicitor’s letter in relation to
your impending divorce from your hus-
band and the content of the letter
caused you distress. Not for the first
time you decided to resort to consum-ing large quantities of alcohol to deal
with this distress and you knew it would
turn you into a dangerous, destructive,
violent, foul-mouthed menace.”
He said that when in hospital follow-
ing the fire, she “began screaming high-
ly inappropriate language at the police
officers, falsely claiming you were being
bullied”. It came at a time when hospi-
tals were facing additional pressures
due to the pandemic, he said.
Higginson, who worked in the hospi-
tality industry, admitted arson and
breaching a restraining order and was
jailed for 34 months.