'However angry you are, you cannot use certain language. It's not an excuse'

Towards the end of the morning session in Robbie Dunne's appeal against the 18-month suspension given to him over his conduct towards fellow rider Bryony Frost, BHA barrister Louis Weston QC and panel chair Anthony Boswood QC debated some of the language allegedly used by Dunne.

Dunne, who it had been claimed called Frost a "f****** whore" and a "dangerous c***", was challenging the punishment handed to him at the end of last year for subjecting Frost to a protracted bullying campaign.

In this particular exchange, Weston attempted to persuade Boswood that words spoken by Dunne following a race at Stratford in July 2020 were indefensible.

Robbie Dunne ban for bullying Bryony Frost reduced to ten months on appeal

Anthony Boswood: We can't really differentiate between one sort of bad language and another, can we?

Louis Weston: Yes, we can, with respect.

AB: On the specific words?

LW: Calling a woman "a whore", yes, is just frankly unacceptable.

AB: Is it worse than calling a man "a c***", is it?

LW: Yes. Yes.

AB: It's not because of the gender element, is it?

LW: Yes. It's suggesting that she is promiscuous.

AB: Well, calling someone "a bastard" suggests he's illegitimate. Albeit it's offensive and deeply unattractive and so on and so forth, but one has to distinguish, surely, fairly, between the spur of the moment, when one is angry, legitimately or not, and the cold light of day, as it were?

LW: This wasn't, with respect, heat of the moment. The incident Mr Dunne was complaining of happened in the early stages of the race. He has then completed the race, come over to her and used that language to her.

AB: He could hardly use that or any other language going over the water jump, could he?

LW: You are, with respect, moving from one line of attack on me to another. The first line of attack is to say it's heat of the moment, and I explained to you why it's not. The second is to say it would be impossible for him to remonstrate with her during the race. I don't know, but he didn't. He waited until after, went over to her and abused her in that way. There's not a single workplace in this country where you can use that language to a woman and stay in your job. You just can't do it. It's unacceptable. It's objectively unacceptable. If you don't agree with me about that, the proper test at the moment is whether it was reasonable of the panel to reach a view that it was unacceptable, having heard Mr Dunne concede that it was. There are some terms – some racist language, some gender-based slurs, some sexuality-based slurs – that in contemporary understanding are simply unacceptable.

AB: Under any circumstances?

LW: Under any circumstances. However angry you are, you cannot use certain language. It's not an excuse, it's not a defence.

Read more on this subject:

Robbie Dunne banned for 18 months for bullying and harassing Bryony Frost

Robbie Dunne rode in a 'deliberately intimidatory' manner against Bryony Frost

Read panel's damning verdict on Robbie Dunne's bullying of Bryony Frost

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