A trainer who allegedly used a cattle prod capable of emitting a 6000-volt shock on a greyhound in order to make it run faster is unlikely to face criminal charges after being disqualified from the industry.
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Fairfax Media understands Robert Newstead won't be subject to police prosecution or further scrutiny from the RSPCA after being banned for 15 months by Greyhound Racing NSW for his part in an incident at Newcastle's The Gardens track in July 2012.
Video of the incident was also obtained by the ABC and GRNSW, the state's industry regulator, referred the case to the authorities in July to see if criminal charges could be laid. But it's understood that such a scenario is now considered unlikely.
Newstead will instead serve a lengthy disqualification from greyhound racing after an inquiry found him guilty of "shocking" a greyhound with the electric prod as a lure travelled past the starting boxes during a trialling session.
Newstead was charged by GRNSW with two offences in October and recently pleaded guilty at a hearing.
Due to his plea he was given a 25 per cent discount on his penalty. He will be able to apply for a licence, if he wishes, in early 2018.
The footage of the cattle prod incident emerged just weeks after the NSW government announced an imminent ban of greyhound racing in the state, which was later reversed.
Deputy Premier and Racing Minister Troy Grant, who flanked Premier Mike Baird during his announcement of a ban on greyhound racing, has since quit as NSW Nationals leader after the party lost the Orange by-election to the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party candidate Philip Donato.
Newstead hasn't started a greyhound in any race since April this year, more than two months before footage of the cattle prod incident emerged publicly.
GRNSW has engaged former top thoroughbred racing steward Ray Murrihy to sift through reams of evidence from an investigation into the Keinbah trial track, which was chaired by Sydney barrister Clive Steirn, SC.
Steirn probed whether witnesses misled a GRNSW inquiry in evidence about the conduct of participants at the trialling facility. Dozens of bones were dug up at the site in July.
Murrihy served as Racing NSW's chief steward for more than 20 years during a distinguished career lasting more than four decades across Australia.
He will determine whether any person figuring in evidence obtained in the Keinbah trial track investigation has breached the rules of GRNSW, which found no evidence to corroborate claims of animal welfare offences at the track during its own inquiry earlier this year.
