The son of a piggery manager accused of sexually assaulting a sow named Olivia has been pictured for the first time, as activists demand the animal is released.
Bradley O’Reilly, 30, was charged after allegedly being caught on a secret camera by activists inside the Midland Bacon pig farm, in Carag Carag, north central Victoria, where his dad Ricky O’Reilly is a boss.
The video showed a person with his pants down allegedly sexually assaulting Sow No. 8416, now given the name Olivia by activists, on February 11.
O’Reilly appeared in person in Echuca court on August 6 on the bestiality charge. He said nothing as his lawyer applied for an adjournment to allow for additional disclosure of materials relating to the case.
Magistrate Russell Kelly adjourned the case until October 8 and extended O’Reilly’s bail.
The O’Reilly family is well known in the local community and north-central Victoria sporting circles.
The accused won the Stanhope Football Club’s 2019 award for ‘most determined’ player and was on the reserves team until last year.
Victorian detectives charged O’Reilly after being handed the Olivia video footage by activists from the Farm Transparency Project, who allegedly broke into Midland Bacon to plant the camera.
Bradley O’Reilly, who is charged with bestiality, is pictured above
Footage taken by animal activists inside Midland Bacon in country Victoria allegedly shows the son of the piggery’s manager, Bradley O’Reilly, committing an act of bestiality upon a sow
The FTP has now set up a Change.org petition demanding the sow’s release with the campaign for Olivia being supported by Instagram and video posts.
Activists have also staged a protest outside the piggery gates with placards and fluffy pig toys.
Prominent animal rights campaigner Sophie Wilcher, who started the petition for Olivia, claimed the footage showed O’Reilly assaulted the pig in a restrictive pen after the end of a work shift.
The video allegedly shows him drop his trousers and commit the alleged sexual assault.
Sow No. 8416 was at the time in a farrowing crate, which deliberately confines sows during pregnancy and after birth to reduce the risk of the mother lying on and crushing its newborn piglets.
‘We have made this footage available on our website, alongside other photos and footage of standard, routine cruelty at the same facility,’ FTP said.
The camera activists planted inside the piggery was not intended to expose any bestiality, but other alleged incidents of maltreatment the FTP was investigating.
Activists have mounted a campaign to free Sow No 8416 (above), which they have dubbed Olivia, and have a petition demanding the pig be released from captivity
Sow No. 8416 now has her own ‘Free Olivia’ T-shirt and activists have protested with placards and pig toys outside the piggery for her release and medical therapy following the alleged assault
This allegedly included piglets being killed with blunt force, and procedures carried out by farm hands with no anaesthetic such as removing teeth, which is legal animal practice.
In a separate matter, O’Reilly pleaded guilty in the Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to 22 charges on Friday, including recklessly engaging in conduct, namely strangling, that placed his victim in danger of serious injury on multiple occasions.
The court heard O’Reilly had himself behaved ‘like an animal’ to the woman, whom he admitted to strangling, menacing and leaving with a black eye.
He was allowed to walk free from court on a two-year community corrections order, which requires him to perform 200 hours of unpaid community work and obtain treatment.
Magistrate Simon Zebrowski made it clear just how close he came to jailing O’Reilly for his attacks on the woman.
‘This has been a very difficult sentencing exercise for me because your behaviour on its own is enough for me to sentence you to a term of imprisonment,’ he said.
Mr Zebrowski said the community needed to understand that jail was the last resort for offenders.
‘Jail doesn’t rehabilitate. Jail doesn’t do that, it’s a last resort because it’s just a punishment,’ he told O’Reilly.
Activists broke into Midland Bacon and planted cameras in to record allege animal cruelty. The footage allegedly captured the manager’s son sexually assaulting one of the sows
Activists’ protested outside Midland Bacon, leaving toys, tokens and notes for the sow, saying in one ‘Dear Olivia of the world. We are sorry. We are trying’
‘What would I be gaining by sending you to jail today? It might make a whole lot of people in the community happy. There might even be people who read about this in the news and think “yeah beauty that animal is going to jail”.
Mr Zebrowski warned O’Reilly he faced an immediate jail term should he ever behave in such a way again.
‘If you can’t control your emotions, if you feel the need to put your hand around somebody’s throat, if you feel the need to take their phone and smash it or throw it away, any of those factors, which are all red flags,’ he said.
Mr Zebrowski said O’Reilly displayed all of the signs of a controlling and coercive individual.
‘I’m in control. I’m not letting go of this. I’m the boss. That sort of coercive and controlling behaviour. All these red flags in your history and if you commit anything like this again you’ll go to jail,’ he warned.
‘If you care about nothing else but yourself that’s where you’ll be going. And if you don’t learn coping techniques and can’t get out of the habits of a wild dog, that’s where you’ll go.’
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk