Six Trinidadian men will appear in the St George’s Magistrates Court in Grenada today to answer charges of the alleged assault of Grenada’s national athlete, Anderson Peters. Five of the six, who are crew members of the Harbour Master pleasure boat, were each charged on Friday with one count of grievous harm and stealing in relation to Peters.
They have been identified as deckhand, John Alexander, 55, sailor Mikhail John, 35, captain Noel Cooper, 42, sailor Lance Wiggins, 45 and sailor Sheon Jack, 28.
They were also charged with causing harm to Peter’s brother, Kiddon Peters.
The vessel’s operation manager, Abiola Benjamin, was charged with assaulting Anderson Peters.
Benjamin is also a police officer.
The six were detained since last Wednesday as the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) investigated the alleged assault of Peters while aboard the Harbour Master.
During that incident, Peters was allegedly beaten and tossed overboard after an event on the cruise boat.
He is the double world javelin champion and revered by Grenadians as a national hero. Many of his compatriots have lambasted T&T in their commentary following the incident, saying the alleged behaviour of the Harbour Master crew pointed to a larger issue of crime and violence in T&T.
On Saturday, in a statement shared on social media, the vessel’s captain, Cooper, alleged it was Peters who started the altercation.
Cooper claims Peters and his friend group refused to get off the vessel as the crew was preparing for another party.
He also claimed he and other crew members were assaulted by Peters and his friends.
As debate over the incident rages on social media, Guardian Media spoke to Grenadian journalist, Kellon Bubb, about the reaction of the Grenadian public to Cooper’s statement.
According to Bubb, who has been a journalist for over 20 years, the statement may have done more harm than good.
“Grenadians think the statement was condescending and it sought to blame the victim, they felt as though it was a damage control piece which would not want to help him in court because you would not want to prejudice any case by putting out public relation statements,” Bubb said.
He said the alleged assault has left Grenadian divided, as some hold the viewpoint that all of T&T should not be held accountable for the actions of six citizens, especially given the rich cultural history between both islands.
But another school of thought is set very much against T&T.
“On the other side of the ledger, there are those who are expressing anti-T&T sentiment. People are saying we need to boycott Trinidadian pleasure boats that come to Grenada, we need to not go to Trinidad for Carnival, we need to not eat particular Trinidadian foods, such as roti and so on, which again I guess a lot of it is fuelled by social media rhetoric and it is not necessarily shared by everyone,” Bubb said.
He said there are some Grenadians who are now claiming the Harbour Master crew were “rough” with them at other events.
Bubb said the six accused may have a long wait for their matter to be completed in Grenada, as just like T&T, the judicial system operates slowly.
“We have a serious backlog of cases here as I believe all the OECS territories do, you have issues with court facilities, lawyers have been advocating for years for the construction of a Hall of Justice in the country so you do have the capacity to meet the demand for cases that are brought to the court, it is challenging to say the least, that is the challenge that will be presented when these gentlemen appear in court,” he said.