The Tribune

By FARRAH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

THE woman accused of defaming former Social Services Minister Frankie Campbell was arrested when she went to a local station to speak with an officer, a court was told.

Capprio Saunders was charged with intentional libel after she was accused of recording a WhatsApp voice note alleging Mr Campbell had impregnated the daughter of an alleged sweetheart.

In the recording, which was played in a previous court sitting, a woman could be heard saying “it is alleged” that Mr Campbell told the woman “not to kill the baby” and that his wife “broke up all the glass in their house” after she heard the news.

After asking “Is it true...I don’t know,” the person speaking in the audio also asserted that Mr Campbell was a “naughty boy”, congratulated him for having a “bitty” (a young girl) and stated they were not surprised by the rumours because Haitian men were known to “go with their own daughters”.

Saunders maintains her not guilty plea during her trial before Magistrate Samuel McKinney.

When Constable 4323 Ednika Ferguson gave evidence, she said she was working the front desk at the Criminal Investigation Department around 10.45am on April 22, when Saunders came and asked to see Sergeant Strachan. She said after she contacted the officer, he came down to speak with the accused.

Officer Ferguson said after the two of them finished their conversation, Sgt Strachan came over to her and gave her “certain instructions”. She said she then informed Saunders that she was being arrested for intentional libel in reference to a complaint made by Mr Campbell, before searching the accused and placing her in a holding cell for “safekeeping”.

When Mr Campbell took the stand in July, he insisted the contents of the recording were “untrue” and said he was “hurt and annoyed” by the claims, as he had “spent a significant part of his adult life protecting the vulnerable and marginalised” in society and “speaking out against gender-based violence and the protection and upliftment of women and girls” in his present ministry.

“I was most appalled as the father of three beautiful daughters and the grandfather of a beautiful granddaughter, at suggestions that I would have had sex with them,” he told the court in July.

“In my professional capacity it’s most embarrassing having had the privilege to represent the Bahamas as part of the United Nations speaking out against matters such as these.

“Since this I have been the butt of many unpleasant jokes and subjected to ridicule and embarrassment,” he said.

The prosecution’s final witness is scheduled to take the stand on November 12.