Emails defaming prominent Vincentians making rounds on social media

Two email messages currently making the rounds on social media, which accuse certain prominent Vincentians of extramarital affairs, kinky sex and being HIV positive, among other things, have inflamed some persons here.

The two emails, which are said to be among some 153 pieces of correspondence handed over to the police in February 2017, were allegedly originally sent from an email account bearing the name Yugge Farrell to Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves.

It is also alleged that the emails were leaked to the public, although it is not clear by whom.

The emails began making the rounds last weekend, after Farrell, a 22-year-old model, was sent to the Mental Health Centre for observation, after appearing before magistrate Bertie Pompey on Friday, January 5, on a charge of breaching the peace by using abusive language to Karen Duncan, which was “You dirty b**ch.”

Duncan, a lawyer attached to the Attorney-General’s chambers, is the wife of Camillo Gonsalves. Farrell pleaded not guilty to the charge and will return to the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court on January 22, following evaluation.

Over the weekend, social media became abuzz with the Farrell/Gonsalves issue and persons voiced their opinions, many of them disagreeing with the decision of the court to send Farrell for observation. Some persons expressed the view that Farrell was not mentally unstable, despite her allegedly strange behaviour.

Many of these people, however, changed their minds when they read the emails which had been circulated. Some of the persons who had spoken in her defence were named in the emails as having full-blown AIDS or being involved in multiple sexual relationships (homosexual, heterosexual and bisexual).

But while some persons had a change of heart, others seemed more annoyed that the emails had been leaked and questioned who leaked them and the timing of the leaks.

A few persons have claimed that their names may have been added to the emails by the person who leaked them and not by the person who wrote them, in an attempt to have them turn against Farrell.

The St Vincent and the Grenadines Human Rights Association (SVGHRA) has appealed to the public to refrain from the publication and republication of defamatory material.