Former racehorse trainer jailed for three years for contacting her daughter, 7, after bitter custody battle

Judge accuses her of 'dirty' court fight

Rap for Earl of Huntington's letter of support



A former jockey and racehorse trainer at the centre of a bitter custody battle has been jailed for three years for defying a court order that forbids her from contacting her daughter.

Vicky Haigh, 41, who was named and shamed earlier this year after she falsely accused her former boyfriend of being a paedophile, approached the seven-year-old at a petrol station.

The girl was sitting in a car belonging to her father David Tune, 41, who is Haigh’s ex-boyfriend. Haigh opened the passenger door and began ‘screaming at the top of her voice’, a court heard.

Before their bitter split: Vicky Haigh and David Tune

Haigh was reported to the police and an arrest warrant was issued. She was later charged with breaching the non-molestation order, imposed after her sex allegations were found to be false.

She denied the charge but was convicted last month by a jury. Haigh was jailed on Friday at Sheffield Crown Court.

Smear campaign: Haigh breached a court order to stay away from her daughter

But last night one of her supporters, MP John Hemming, said: ‘This is a ridiculously harsh sentence for what was a minor technical breach of a court order.’

He added that it was ‘a waste of taxpayers’ money’ and an attempt to silence a mother who had disagreed with the family law courts.

In 2007 judges were granted the powers to jail offenders who breached non-molestation orders. The offence carries a maximum sentence of five years.

It is rare, however, for offenders to be jailed and is done so only when there are extreme aggravating circumstances. Haigh is expected to appeal.



The jail sentence is the latest twist in a five-year feud involving Haigh and Mr Tune, whom she accused of sexually abusing their daughter when they split up in 2006. It led to social services becoming involved.

Initially the secrecy of the family courts meant the public were not allowed to know the facts of the case or details of the order.

But in August, the country’s most senior family judge, Sir Nicholas Wall, ruled that Haigh and Mr Tune could be named.

He did so to free Mr Tune from the false smear that he is a child abuser and to publicly shame Haigh for making up the allegations and coaching her daughter to repeat them.

Bitter custody fight: Former horse trainer Vicky Haigh is now behind bars after the incicdent, which had 'sinister overtones'

It was also revealed that Haigh had breached the court order on March 29 after approaching her daughter at a garage in Bawtry, near Doncaster, South Yorkshire.

Criticism: Top judge Sir Nicholas Wall

At Haigh’s trial, Mr Tune said that after he went into the garage, she walked towards his car and opened the passenger door where his daughter was sitting. He then began to return to the car.

‘Victoria was screaming demonically,’ he told the court. ‘It all happened in a flash. She said: “This man has abused her.” She kept repeating those words. She was screaming at the top of her voice. Our daughter was very upset.’

Haigh, who was pregnant at the time and now has a seven-month-old daughter with her new partner, claimed her former boyfriend set up the meeting. She denied she was planning to abduct her seven-year-old daughter.

But Judge Peter Kelson QC said the incident had ‘sinister overtones’, given that Haigh had recently applied for a new passport for the child.

‘It looked to Mr Tune as if it was an attempted abduction,’ he said. ‘I don’t accept at all that it was a purely co-incidental meeting.’

The girl, who cannot be identified, now lives with her father.











