From the resort to the prison with the scorpions, the drama of Lord Ashcroft’s daughter-in-law

Time.news – The Belizean thriller that embarrasses the British aristocracy changes location: from the pier of a luxury resort on the island of San Pedro to the terrible Hattieville prison, known for its overcrowding and harsh and unbearable conditions for inmates. Jasmine Hartin, companion of Andrew Ashcroft, son of the British billionaire and lord Michael Ashcroft, one of the major donors of Boris Johnson’s conservative party, will be taken right inside a prison cell of horrors, the subject of an episode within the series dedicated by Netflix to the worst prisons in the world.

The case

The woman was arrested and charged with the death of the police superintendent, Henry Jemmott, friend of the family, hit in the back of the head by a bullet fired from a short distance. Everything that is around the news, in truth, is still wrapped in a great aura of mystery. Starting from the relationship between the two which, according to the families, was not of a sentimental nature but characterized only by a solid friendship. The couple were on a pier next to the Mata Rocks luxury resort, watching the moon, in full violation of the anti-Covid measures imposed in the small Central American country that requires staying indoors from 10pm to 5am.

The hypothesis of the game

According to Hartin’s testimony, the two would have seen each other inside the apartment and then decided to go out and enjoy the Caribbean night, drinking and relaxing. The 38-year-old woman told how the policeman had urged her to take the license, after some death threats received, showing her the functioning of the service pistol. At some point in the evening, Jemmott, 42, with a bulky and overweight physique, he felt pains in his shoulders and Hartin offered to give him a massage to alleviate his pain. Meanwhile, the service pistol una Glock which had been unsecured, lay leaning on the dock. The man then asked to have it back but, just at the moment of delivery, an involuntary shot would go off that hit him behind the head, at the nape of the neck. Other reconstructions, however, speak of a true “pistol game” which, due to alcohol and the unstable emotional situation, would have turned into tragedy.
Hartin was found by an agent with her clothes and hands full of blood, trembling, in shock. It seems that the corpulent, now lifeless agent fell on her and she pushed the body away towards the dock. A thesis that explains why the body was recovered in the water, next to the place where the two had secluded.

Manslaughter due to negligence

For this reason Hartin was accused of negligent manslaughter, an act that rarely involves a prison sentence in Belize and that could reach a maximum of 5 years easily transformed into a fine. Her lawyers are fighting for the introduction of a bail that would allow the woman to avoid this type of torture, but the measure has so far been denied due to fears that Hartin, with a Canadian passport, could escape from the small Central American country. .
Some photos have immortalized the woman, handcuffed, being taken from the cell where she was locked up for 4 days on the island of San Pedro, the scene of the accidental death of Henry Jemmott, 42, a friend of the woman and her partner, Andrew Ashcroft .

Hope in the Supreme Court

In Hattieville, the woman will have to wait for the trial to begin unless the country’s Supreme Court decides to give her the chance to get out of what is defined as “real hell”. According to the Times, two years ago a prisoner awaiting trial filed a lawsuit over the conditions in which he was detained: no access to sunlight, no blankets or sheets, cell infested with scorpions, tarantulas, millipedes and cockroaches. He said his feces were never removed and he was given a tuberculosis vaccine against his will. Furthermore, the cells are not assigned through specific criteria so there is a risk of sharing the space with dangerous and violent subjects. A prison very different from the spaces in which the entrepreneur, expert in the luxury hotel sector and manager of over two thousand dollars a night resort is used to living, a few steps from one of the most spectacular coral reefs in the world.

The role of Lord Ashcroft

Hartin has two children with Andrew Ashcroft, 43, the youngest son of the former vice president of the British Conservative party who has dual citizenship and has contributed to the development of the small economy of the Central American state with banks, communications companies and tourism businesses. Lord Ashcroft was also Belize’s representative to the UN. Hartin and Ashcroft, while presenting themselves as husband and wife, may never have married. The two had met the policeman because of the business in San Pedro, the area where Jemmott worked. A sister of the victim, who told how the man had 5 children, believes that his brother “was killed” and excludes the possibility that it could be suicide since the man “would soon be promoted and was a dreamer”. But the investigations, including scorpions and the hypothesis of dangerous games, have just begun.

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