The parents of popular former model Yugge Farrell were on Monday committed to stand trial for attempted murder and arson, less than a week after they were discharged then re-arrested on the same charges.
After a paper committal procedure at the Serious Offences Court in Kingstown over which Chief Magistrate Rechanne Browne-Matthias presided and Grant Connell represented the accused couple, Gailene Farrell and Calvert Charles, both of Lowmans Bay, are to stand trial.
On Friday, Farrell and Charles were brought before the Serious Offences Court, where they were read a charge that on Nov. 1, 2017 at Lowmans Bay, they attempted to murder Edward Durrant, a fellow villager.
They were also charged that without lawful excuse, they destroyed Durrant’s 12 feet by 16 feet wood and concrete house by fire and were reckless as to whether such property would be destroyed.
Just two days earlier, the couple was discharged after the prosecution said they had been informed that police could not find the DVDs to which they had burnt the video interviews they had conducted with the accused.
The couple, which had been granted bail, had been waiting since last November for the commencement of a preliminary inquiry into charges that
The preliminary inquiry was scheduled to begin last Wednesday, after several adjournments. However, they were discharged on Wednesday after the court was informed of the development.
When they appeared at the Serious Offences Court Friday morning, Browne-Matthias granted bail on the same conditions as she had done last year, but this time, did not order the couple to report periodically to police.
Bail was set at EC$30,000 with one surety. The couple was ordered to surrender their travel documents, stop notices were placed at ports of entry and exit, preventing them to leave the jurisdiction, and they were also ordered to seek the permission of the court to leave St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The couple is parents of Yugge Farrell, who made national headlines earlier this year after being charged on Jan. 4 with using insulting language to Karen Duncan-Gonsalves, wife of Finance Minister Camillo Gonsalves the previous day.
The 22-year-old former model claimed that she was the years-long lover of the finance minister.
It is alleged that on the day that Yugge reportedly committed the offence against Duncan-Gonsalves, she also delivered to her a “blackmail” letter asking, among other things, that the charges against her parents be dropped.
Yugge went on to spend three weeks in a psychiatric hospital after the court granted an application by the prosecution, given in the absence of any supporting evidence that she warranted being sent for psychiatric evaluation.
It was later revealed that Farrell had a history of mental health issues.
She has been granted EC$1,000 bail and is scheduled to return to court on Dec. 17, 2018.
AMICUS CURIAE . . .
In the interest of justice and fair-play, I feel compelled to ASK:
IS THIS FAMILY BEING WILFULLY PERSECUTED – – – for NARROW POLITICAL PURPOSES?
Could some outside Caribbean-wide juridical body look into the woes and travails of this poor family to see WHETHER THERE HAS BEEN AND IS CURRENTLY ANY MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE, here?
It is beginning to STINK TO THE HEAVENS that there is SOMETHING REALLY ROTTEN IN HIS PARTICULAR STATE OF ‘DENMARK’.
Is THIS a HUBRISTIC, ARROGANT, SHAMEFUL DISPLAY OF INANE POLITICAL PARTISANSHIP – – – or a genuine course of justice??
These happenings and goings-on are dramatically eroding my innate belief and trust in the SVG/OECS/CARICOM justice system.
When the juridical system fails, the people not infrequently resort to the ancient laws of the jungle. In that eventuality: WE ALL SUFFER.
QUO VADIS, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines?
Are we in SVG still a land of the Blessed and with a mindset of PEACE WITH JUSTICE?!
Quo Vadis?
PAX ET JUSTITIA.
I remain
A GRAVELY CONCERNED CITIZEN OF SVG
Steve Huggins, A.I.C., UWI Cert. Public Admin.,
Paralegal/Legal Assistant, Case Examiner and
Private Investigator.