Shal­iza Has­sanali

Farmer Granville Jes­sop, who has been ac­cused of in­ject­ing 2,000 av­o­ca­dos with the in­sec­ti­cide Cypro, is main­tain­ing his in­no­cence. "I did not in­ject any av­o­ca­dos with Cypro," he in­sist­ed on Wednes­day, sur­round­ed by res­i­dents from the El Do­ra­do com­mu­ni­ty. Jes­sop, 69, said re­cent me­dia re­ports that he had poi­soned the fruits which cre­at­ed a na­tion­al up­roar was mis­rep­re­sent­ed and blown out of pro­por­tion by the Tu­na­puna po­lice.

On Oc­to­ber 18, dur­ing a heavy down­pour, Jes­sop said a group of thieves in­vad­ed his 30-acre es­tate at Madoo Hill, El Do­ra­do, known as "The Veg" and be­gan cart­ing off his av­o­ca­dos. He was alert­ed by his 19 hunt­ing and pit bull dogs that guard his ranch. "I didn't come out­side. I ain't watch no­body. All I heard was the dogs bark­ing." To get to Jes­sop's ranch, one would have to trek for half an hour in­to the for­est. Peo­ple in the vil­lage who saw the men load­ing box­es of av­o­ca­dos in­to a van at the foothill to his es­tate, Jes­sop said, called the po­lice. "The po­lice came and asked if I know who steal­ing the av­o­ca­dos. I tell them I don't know."

The threat

Lat­er that evening, af­ter as­sess­ing his loss­es, Jes­sop said he be­came out­raged with the con­stant steal­ing. "That's when I picked up two new sy­ringes and a bot­tle of Cypro and took it to the Tu­na­puna Po­lice Sta­tion." The sy­ringes, Jes­sop said, are used for treat­ing his dogs, while the Cypro is sprayed to ward off in­sects. "I told the po­lice if the thieves don't leave my av­o­ca­dos I go­ing to poi­son it with the Cypro." The al­most-filled bot­tle of Cypro and sy­ringes were im­me­di­ate­ly seized by the po­lice.

Two days af­ter, Jes­sop said he was tak­en by sur­prise when he saw in the news­pa­pers that he had in­ject­ed 2,000 av­o­ca­dos in his es­tate to de­ter thieves from steal­ing his pro­duce. "I ques­tioned how the po­lice could do me that? I had threat­ened to in­ject the av­o­ca­dos. But I didn't do it be­cause all my dogs, wild an­i­mals and birds in the es­tate would eat my av­o­ca­dos." Jes­sop said the ad­vi­so­ry on the press caused a drop in av­o­ca­do sales with sup­pli­ers and ven­dors call­ing on the law to take ac­tion against him.

I'm sor­ry, but it was not my fault

Some, he said, even de­scribed him as a mon­ster and men­tal­ly de­ranged, which he de­nied. "I'm re­al sor­ry for what hap­pened but it was not my fault." Last Sat­ur­day, Jes­sop said the Tu­na­puna po­lice vis­it­ed his es­tate and took sam­ples of the av­o­ca­dos for test­ing. "While on the es­tate, I burst a zabo­ca and eat it in front of the po­lice. The po­lice and them start to eat, too." Jes­sop was lat­er ar­rest­ed, hand­cuffed and tak­en to the Tu­na­puna Po­lice Sta­tion where he was in­ter­ro­gat­ed for sev­er­al hours.

Though a state­ment was al­so tak­en from him, Jes­sop was even­tu­al­ly re­leased with­out be­ing charged. Ad­mit­ting his life has not been a bed of ros­es, Jes­sop spoke about the tri­als and tribu­la­tions at the hands of crim­i­nals who re­li­gious­ly steal his crops. Point­ing to his left ear, part of which was bit­ten off, and long scars on his hands and back, Jes­sop said: "They bite out part of my ear for my own thing (crops). All the chop on my body is be­cause of prae­di­al lar­ce­ny."

Set on fire

Jes­sop al­leged that last De­cem­ber, he was hand­cuffed to a man­go tree on his farm and set on fire by a po­lice of­fi­cer who ac­cused him of har­bour­ing crim­i­nals who were cul­ti­vat­ing mar­i­jua­na on his lands. Drop­ping his moss green over­all, Jes­sop showed scars which he suf­fered from the burn on his back and but­tocks. Jes­sop said some of his dogs were al­so burnt. The mat­ter, he said, is be­fore the court. For years, Jes­sop said, peo­ple have been steal­ing from his land, which in­fu­ri­ates him.

Tu­na­puna Coun­cil­lor: He is a peace­ful man

Au­zonville/Tu­na­puna Coun­cil­lor Es­mond Forde, who per­son­al­ly knows the farmer, de­scribed Jes­sop as a peace­ful man. "I don't think Jes­sop would do some­thing like that." Jes­sop said he trust­ed no one and his best friends were his dogs. "The In­di­ans in El Do­ra­do have a great love for me. Cre­ole peo­ple don't treat me nice," he claimed. Hav­ing fa­thered eight chil­dren with five dif­fer­ent women, Jes­sop ad­mit­ted that two of his sons were killed at the hands of the po­lice. Last year, his 33-year-old son, Ja­son Bhag­wan­deen was rid­dled with bul­lets at Back Street, Tu­na­puna. His 21-year-old son, Mar­lon was gunned down in Va­len­cia.

Ten years in jail

Jes­sop al­so spent ten years be­hind bars for the mur­der of Ray­mond Bho­la who robbed him of $300 and a hunt­ing dog val­ued $600 in 1990. "I spent eight years in Re­mand Yard with an­oth­er two years await­ing tri­al," he said. Jes­sop said he and Bho­la used to hunt to­geth­er. He added: "Bho­la stole the dog and sold it to buy co­caine." When Jes­sop con­front­ed Bho­la about the dog, he claimed he was chopped on his left hand and lat­er am­bushed at his home. Jes­sop said he de­fend­ed him­self by beat­ing Bho­la with a piece of wood which re­sult­ed in his death.