Look how you treat poor people like dog – father

by Lyf Compton

Anyone looking with an open mind at the dilemma of Yugge Farrell would agree that the situation is not being handled well.

Calvert “Daddy Mole” Charles, father of Yugge, expressed this view on Wednesday, after breaking a silence of almost three weeks. He told SEARCHLIGHT in an interview that all he wants is for his daughter to get the help she needs and for her to be treated fairly.

Speaking from his Lowmans Bay, Buddy Gutter home, with his wife Gailene Farrell in earshot, Calvert said he is hoping for the best, but he is distraught by the way his daughter is being treated by “the authorities” and upset by the use of the word “crazy” to describe his 23-year-old daughter (born May 23, 1994).

Yugge has alleged that she and Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves were involved in an intimate relationship, which ended in 2016. She has been remanded to the Mental Health and Rehabilitation Centre (MHC) for psychiatric observation since Friday, January 5, after pleading not guilty to a charge of causing a breach of the peace by using abusive language to Karen Duncan, Camillo’s wife.

Yugge rented a house at Golden Vale

Calvert said while Camillo has remained mum on the issue, he had been hearing rumours about the Minister and his daughter since 2013 and when he asked her about it, she responded saying, “I is a big woman, daddy,” Calvert disclosed.

He said he does not think that his daughter should be at the MHC, but in his opinion, this may be an attempt to stop her from saying certain things.

“Friends … telling me Camillo does come pick she up in Bottom Town and they go party together and sometimes, he bring home back all the girls from the party,” said Calvert, who added that after he stopped seeing his daughter, sometime in 2013, he learnt that she was renting a house at Golden Vale.

He said Yugge invited him to her home a number of times, but although he never went, her brother slept there once.

Calvert said in the three years after Yugge moved from Rose Place, she never asked him for money, except once when she asked him for “a proper bed” for her rented premises, which he purchased.

He said after she returned home, he never questioned her about anything, but at one point, she told him she had money for “a woman by some car park, EC$1,300,” said Calvert, who added that he did not know what the money was for.

In relation to the allegations that Camillo was having an extramarital affair with Yugge, Calvert said these are things men never tell the truth about.

Yugge upset about not being able to see the PM

He says he is distraught by the way his daughter is being spoken of. “I been listening the Prime Minister on the TV using words like if is a political matter, but I don’t think it should be a political matter. I think from the beginning of this issue, when the mother told me she went to see the Prime Minister, I think the matter should have done dealt with long time ago; that is how I see it,” Calvert told SEARCHLIGHT.

Yugge’s mother, Gailene, told SEARCHLIGHT that she visited the Prime Minister a few months ago and told him about the allegations that Camillo was intimately involved with Yugge. She claims he asked her to bring proof and so, she took a woman with whom Yugge lived, who claimed she witnessed Camillo picking Yugge up.

The Prime Minister, when contacted by SEARCHLIGHT on Wednesday, denied that Yugge’s alleged affair came up during his discussion with Gailene.

“That didn’t happen. The focus of my discussions with them was the health issue. The focus was getting help for Yugge,” Gon- salves said, adding that he asked Gailene to bring the woman with whom Yugge lived at Rose Place, because Gailene had said that woman might be able to persuade Yugge to visit a doctor.

SEARCHLIGHT also reached out to the woman with whom Yugge lived at Rose Place. She refused to comment, saying that she feared for her life.

Gailene also said on another occasion, she tried to visit the Prime Minister, along with Yugge, but she was not allowed to see him and Yugge cried about what she perceived as a slight.

The Prime Minister, however, said he is unaware that Gailene had come there to see him with Yugge. He said on one occasion, before his recent meeting with Gailene, Yugge was one of a number of people who had come to his office to see him, but because of his schedule, he could not see any of them. He said he went out to explain this to them, speaking to them one by one, asking what help they needed. He said Yugge said she wanted a job, and he advised her to write him, stating her qualifications. According to Gonsalves, Yugge responded by shrieking loudly and when he enquired of his security staff what was the matter, he was told the young woman had some problems.

Calvert says he just wants his daughter to get help.

“I know she would like to further she studies and I know she is a person always thinking about developing she self.

“She shouldn’t be out dey (MHC). I think she will get an unfair treatment out dey. Growing up she was a nice girl, always have a lot of respect for people. I surprise to see she in this kind of way here and she is being condemned… People say she crazy; I wouldn’t use them kind of terms dey on people,” stressed Calvert.

Father disappointed PM hasn’t come to Yugge’s assistance

The distraught father said he loves the ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP), but they do not seem to be looking out for him. He said since the issue with Yugge arose, opposition Parliamentarian for West Kingstown Daniel Cummings visited them; he did not speak with him, but his wife did.

“I run Cummings out of here and I is the only man do that and I love this government, but I ain’t see them looking to help me.

The fact remain I never get a length of steel, me never get a piece of board, because fact remain me never go anywhere and beg anybody ah nah; me work hard.

“Nobody come here, nobody check pon me; me hear he (PM Gonsalves) come pon TV say he know the mother, he nah know me. I is a man don’t go nowhere; me don’t front up with these people….I know a lot of people and a close relative of the Prime Minister is who used to pay Yugge money to go college.”

He said when Yugge is at home, she seems normal to him and he doesn’t know if a person can go crazy in seconds.

“Me ain’t see no different thing with she. She is a serious person; she don’t make much joke,” said Calvert, who added that if Yugge had come from an influential family, she would have been treated differently.

He said he would like his daughter to receive help, because the allegations made against her will scar her in a small country like St Vincent and the Grenadines.

“So, when you pass, people shoot you down. Because you done poor, you done small already and is pure scars ‘pon you round here.”

He is disappointed that the Prime Minister has not come to Yugge’s assistance.

“…All I find, the Prime Minister go ‘pon TV is to defend he son, speak good things about he son, but I don’t hear he speak no good thing about my daughter.

“I hear he speak like she is a crazy person… He never come and find out from me or the mother to find out what she doing and what is she lifestyle. He don’t appreciate nothing from we; he just see we as some black head nigga down the road, some black poor people ‘pon the street; that is the treatment we get,” lamented Calvert.

Yugge was used, then discarded

The angry father said while Yugge is now being seen as unfit, she was not always viewed this way.

“Camillo didn’t see she so when he now start to play she; he see she as a young beauty, but he feel he done husked it out now, and he could just dump it, and everybody should agree with … he, but the people with righteous mindedness who check for righteousness will know that this is nothing clean.

“You help a person; you don’t just dash them out pon the street. You think it easy; you been paying a rent, you been living a luxurious life and you come right back … in Bottom Town where you done leave you people in Bottom Town?

“I take you and carry you, put you in rent, have you flying plane; you going in Barbados to model, you going Trinidad to model, you going here. I have you big, you doing ads and thing…but everything crash now and I just drop you down and turn my back on you?” commented Calvert.

He added, “What source of income I have to survive off ah when you done put me up dey and throw me off the chair? Then you telling me now, you ain’t know she and tomorrow you is the minister or the prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines. Look how you treat poor people like dog; look how you treat we like dog. I find that is dog treatment. I find them treat she like she not human, … dash she in a mental home institution without any proper assessment, without the doctor who was seeing she in hospital know they throw she dey.”

Medication administered without parents being informed

Calvert said that he is also upset about his daughter being administered medication without her parents being informed.

“So, the parents nah nobody? So, you can’t call the parents to have a conversation with the parents? This is unfair treatment, I don’t think she get no good treatment,” stressed Calvert.

He said had Yugge been the son of the Prime Minister at the MHC, the parents would have been told what was prescribed and in any event, the son would not have been taken there, but flown out of the country.

“…But because me poor and me ain’t dey no way, he exploit my daughter out dey,” said the emotional Calvert.

But despite all his fears, Calvert said that he is hoping for the best.

“Everybody miss she in the neighbourhood,” said the concerned father.

“I want my children to have dey fair share in life by working hard. I think she need some help financially and maybe spiritually. I think she need help with all these things, but the way they assessing she as a crazy person, I don’t see it that way, because we communicate normal in this home.”

Defence lawyer rejects psychiatric report

Yugge shot to national attention when she appeared before the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court on Friday, January 5, charged that on Thursday, January 4, at Granby Street, Kingstown, she did cause a breach of peace by using abusive language to Karen Duncan of Prospect, which was “You dirty b**ch.”

Duncan, a senior crown counsel in the Attorney-General’s Chambers, is the wife of Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves.

Farrell pleaded not guilty to the charge and was ordered by magistrate Bertie Pompey to the Mental Health and Rehabilitation Centre (MHC) for two weeks psychiatric evaluation.

She returned to the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court on Monday, January 22, when it was revealed that the psychiatric report presented to the court read that Yugge was “not fit to plead.”

During her court appearance on Monday, Yugge displayed unusual behaviour, including flailing her arms and yelling.

When the name of complainant Karen Duncan was called, Farrell raised her hand in a position above her head, reminiscent of a slapping pose, and started shaking.

Duncan’s name was called three times, but she did not make an appearance in court.

Grant Connell, defence lawyer for Yugge, said he did not accept the psychiatric report.

He said when he had visited Yugge at the psychiatric hospital on four occasions, she did not exhibit the behaviour on display in court on Monday.

Connell stated that contrary to his advice, Farrell had been given strong antipsychotic medication, which supposedly affects the chemicals in the brain.

The lawyer also took issue with the fact that the doctor who had signed the medical report was, according to him, “not a psychiatrist”.

He further said that the defence wished to conduct their own psychiatric evaluation.

“I humbly submit, given the magnitude and the ramifications of this application on this young lady, with greatest respect to Dr Sona, it will not suffice.”

The medical report was signed by psychiatrist Dr Sonasree Jammulapati MBBS MD (Psychiatry), a full-time employee of the Ministry of Health, assigned to the MHC.

Senior magistrate Rickie Burnett adjourned the hearing to Monday, January 29, to give him time to consider the submissions and responses of the prosecution and defence.