Bryony Frost claims Robbie Dunne ‘opened towel and shook himself’ in front of her and found it ‘funny’, BHA hear
TEARFUL Bryony Frost has told a BHA panel how Robbie Dunne exposed himself in front of her.
Frost described how he once opened his towel and began “shaking himself” after she entered a male changing room.
The shocking revelation came after Dunne’s legal representative Roderick Moore read out his witness statement on day two of the disciplinary hearing at the BHA’s headquarters in central London.
Dunne says he was only naked in front of Frost on one occasion and there was “nothing sexual or inappropriate” about it.
He claimed the only time Frost had seen him in the nude was after he had used a sauna near the jockeys’ changing room.
Frost said the statement was untrue and he had previously exposed himself on purpose.
She said: “I remember Robbie through my amateur career being inappropriate to many of us.
“I remember him opening his towel up and shaking himself in front of me and thinking it was funny. That’s what I can recall.”
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Frost revealed the crude act during a two-and-a-half-hour cross-examination by Moore, during which the 26-year-old broke down in tears on three occasions.
He read out several witness statements from Frost’s female colleagues — and none of them said they had witnessed Dunne, 36, behaving inappropriately or in a bullying manner.
Lily Pinchin said he “could be childish”, while Page Fuller stated Dunne used to engage in “persistent banter” towards her but stopped after she confronted him.
But Moore then mentioned the testimony of former rider Lucy Barry, saying: “[BHA investigator] Chris Watts spoke in February this year with licensed jockey Lucy Barry.
“He asked her about a specific incident of inappropriate behaviour by Robbie Dunne, alleged to have taken place in the weighing room.
“Barry denied any such incident had ever taken place and that she and Mr Dunne have been friends for some time.”
Frost refuted Barry’s statement and revealed that Dunne behaved in an incredibly inappropriate and sexual manner towards her.
Frost said: “I distinctly remember Mr Dunne bending Lucy over a table and pretending to do, ‘that’, to her.
“She was laughing it off and people were finding it amusing.
“This is what I can remember. It is not normal behaviour.”
Fellow jockey Millie Wonnacott was then quoted as saying Dunne “would not be to everybody’s taste” but that she did not think he was a bully.
However, Frost countered she did not accept that account as honest, as she believed Wonnacott, who works alongside Dunne for trainer Neil Mulholland, was under some pressure to stay quiet.
‘He promised me he was going to hurt me, and I believed him.’
Bryony Frost
She said: “I feel there was pressure [on Wonnacott].
“[I think] she was scared, because of the repercussions and the isolation it might cause. She works for the same trainer as Mr Dunne and may have feared speaking honestly would affect her career.”
It comes after evidence was heard on day one of the hearing that Dunne had boasted of “potential relations” with other female jockeys whilst in the nude.
BHA lawyer Louis Weston described how Dunne had regularly used “foul, sexually abusive language” as part of his “vendetta” against top jockey Frost.
She was also quizzed about an incident at Southwell racecourse last year when she alleges Dunne threatened her with violence.
On September 3, the horse Dunne was riding was fatally injured in a fall. He blamed Frost and confronted her after the race, allegedly threatening to put her through a rail.
Reading Dunne’s witness statement, Moore said the jockey didn’t mean what he said and his threats were made “in the heat of the moment” after the death of his horse.
Frost responded: “No one has ever said they were going to hurt me, no one has ever said they were going to put me through a wing, so his comments stood out to me.
“He never mentioned the death of his horse. He never said that was the reason he was angry.
“When someone says they want to do something to you, that’s what you believe. Why else would they say it?
“He promised me he was going to hurt me, and I believed him.”
The hearing continues today.