Police said a 31-year-old St Kilda woman had been charged with trespass, failure to comply with biosecurity measures, and installing, using or maintaining an optical surveillance device following an incident at Carag Carag on February 11, 2024.
A Farm Transparency Project spokesperson has confirmed the woman charged was Farm Transparency Project senior investigator Siena Callander.
Spokesperson Harley McDonald-Eckersall said the charges had only recently been laid, almost 12 months after the recordings were taken and given to police.
The charges come after animal activists installed cameras at Midland Bacon piggery at Carag Carag in the hope of capturing unethical practises at the piggery ahead of a Victorian Government inquiry into the state’s pig industry.
Among the footage captured was that of a man allegedly having sex with a pig.
Ms McDonald-Eckersall said Ms Callander gave the video footage of the alleged incident to police and made a police statement.
According to Ms McDonald-Eckersall, Ms Callander had been involved in investigating animal cruelty since 2018, and had been involved with the Farm Transparency Project since 2020.
She will appear in Echuca Magistrates’ Court on the charges on March 4.
Carag Carag man Bradley O’Reilly, 30, is facing the courts on a charge of bestiality over video captured by Farm Transparency Project.
Last time he was in Echuca Magistrates’ Court in November 2024, his defence counsel said video footage shot inside the piggery was illegally obtained, and should therefore be inadmissible in the case against Mr O’Reilly.
A voir dire hearing — which decides on the admissibility of evidence in a case — will be held in front of a magistrate in June next year.
If the evidence is ruled as admissible, a contested hearing will be held in Bendigo Magistrates’ Court later that month.
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