When women and young girls decide to pursue their hobbies, it seems a gang of predators will always follow – we’ve seen it in gymnastics, ice skating and now cries for help are echoing from the equestrian world. Accusations and real life manifestations of physical, sexual and mental abuse and – in one cases – murder, have left officials tasked with ‘cleaning up’ the industry. Retired PSNI detective James Brannigan, who investigated the killing of showjumper Katie Simpson, said: ‘This is a sector where predators know that these kids, especially girls, will do anything to stay with horses. ‘We know that there are abuses taking place within that industry on a shocking scale because the protections aren’t there. Some of these places haven’t updated their safeguarding policies since 2017. You need a baseline standard and it’s just not there.’ In August 2022, 21-year-old Katie Simpson was battered, raped and strangled by her brother-in-law Jonathan Creswell. The jockey and horse trainer then pretended she had hanged herself from the bannisters of the home in Northern Ireland she shared with him and her sister, their children and another woman from the horsey set, Rose de Montmorency Wright. The women were all working with Creswell in a business along with his former girlfriend Jill Robinson. He was a known abuser, having been convicted and jailed for serious assaults on his ex-girlfriend, Co Down Olympian and dressage rider, Abigail Lyle. During his trial for Katie’s murder, the Creswell could see the odds were stacked against him and decided to take his own life while out on bail. Three women, who had also at some point been in sexual relationships with Creswell, were later given suspended sentences for withholding information from police about the circumstances of Katie’s death. Her family are now faced with reliving every detail of her torture in an upcoming inquest. In the meantime, The Katie Pledge, an initiative led by The Katie Trust, is aiming to establish an industry-wide standard for training, vetting and advocacy. Mr Brannigan is in charge of The Katie Trust and has called for greater protection against sexual misconduct and abuse within the equine industry. The former detective believes a lack of safeguarding in the industry allowed Creswell to act with impunity. He said: ‘Creswell was a paedophile. He started relationships with schoolgirls.’ But somehow, this did not stain the jockey’s reputation, as Mr Brannigan claims the local hunt even held a ‘welcome home’ party for him in Armagh when he got out of jail for the ‘brutal’ assault on Abigail Lyle. ‘The cases coming through of incidents taking place in the equine industry is shocking. The equine industry is riddled with this,’ he said. In 2023, champion horse breeder Michael Harold Beattie, 45, was sentenced to four years in prison for grooming and abusing a 15-year-old girl who had been doing daily chores at his stables in Lisburn. The abuse was discovered when a friend of the victim spotted them kissing in the yard. Beattie initially denied all charges, but made his 11th hour dock confession to each of the eight charges against him on the first day of his trial at Craigavon Crown Court in May 2023. They included six counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child aged 13 to 16 and two of inciting the same child to engage in sexual activity over a time span between 21 December 2018 and 5 March 2019. Jailing Beattie at Craigavon Crown Court, Judge Peter Irvine KC said given the nature if the offences, the breach of trust and the list of aggravating factors, ‘it