‘Naming and shaming’ unfair, says local woman

Giselle Johnson

(CNS): A woman who says she was wrongly ‘named and shamed’ by a blogger is urging people not to rush to judgments when reading one side of a story on social media. Giselle Johnson was arrested last month following an altercation with her ex-boyfriend after he made what she said was a false allegation against her that has led to a very public sullying of her name in the community. Johnson, who is currently on police bail, told CNS she did not want to try her case in the media but that she had not been given a fair chance to defend herself after allegations were made on Cayman Marl Road that she had stabbed and seriously injured her former lover.

Johnson, who is from West Bay, said the accusation is untrue and that the publisher of the site did not contact her to give her an opportunity to respond to the false allegation before publishing the online story.

“He assaulted me and I did not retaliate, but as I have previously done I opted to call the police,” she said, as she refuted the post on the online blog about an incident on 6 February outside the Cotton Club on Shedden Road. Johnson said that the man had been stalking and harassing her for several months.

Johnson, who has a small online fashion business, said she has been dealing with the fallout of the relationship since November last year. She contacted police about the escalation of his stalking and harassment but was advised by police officers to seek a restraining order.

Johnson said that just over a week before her own arrest she was involved in a very frightening situation with the man, which was recorded on video that has been seen by CNS, in which he badly damaged her car when he walked over it and smashed the rear window, causing himself severe injury. This took place outside the Office Bar in George Town, where Johnson had been involved in a promotion of her business.

Police confirmed Monday that a 31-year-old man from George Town has now been arrested and interviewed over this incident. But Johnson said that was not until after she was arrested following his allegations that she had assaulted him during yet another incident outside a George Town bar after he had again followed her and caused a disturbance.

Johnson said that there were several witness who saw her former boyfriend attempt to harm her and observed him throwing bottles. She called the police but by the time they arrived her assailant had already left the scene.

While she was at the police station detailing the evening’s events and the violent behaviour of her one-time boyfriend, the hospital reported to the police that they were treating a man who claimed to have been stabbed.

“I believe he had injured himself,” Johnson said, as she pointed to the previous occasion — which she has outlined to police — where he had smashed her rear windscreen and caused himself harm. “I do not think it is fair that I am being named and shamed when I have done nothing wrong.”

Thompson said that during her recent arrest the police officers involved did their job and were not unpleasant to her. However, she said this would not have happened if her former boyfriend been arrested after the previous time he assault her or if the officers at her local police station had taken her earlier complaints more seriously.

She said she made several reports about the harassment after he started following her more frequently. “But the officers at the West Bay station told me to seek a restraining order instead of taking a full report of my complaint.”

Since her arrest earlier this month and the damning story on the gossip site, Johnson has instructed a defence attorney, as she deals with the potential criminal accusation.

Amelia Fosuhene, who has defended a number of women involved in domestic altercations that turn nasty, which often lead to false allegations made by violent men, said that the one-sided coverage of Johnson’s case was unfair.

Fosuhene said that while the media was not the place to litigate her client’s case, she agreed that Johnson had a right to publicly rebut the online accusations that gave rise to further hurtful and damaging comments on the Facebook platform.

But she also highlighted the continued challenges faced by women who are victims of harassment and stalking. While she commended the officers at the new Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), which deals with sensitive cases, she warned that police officers do not always take the complaints of harassment seriously.

“The attitude of some officers towards victims of this type of harassment gives rise for concern as it happens more frequently than the public might imagine,” she said. “Telling women to take out restraining orders is not sufficient. We need officers to do their job properly in all cases where there is a suspicion that a crime has been committed.”

Fosuhene said that the police did their job when they arrested Johnson, who has made it clear that the allegation was false and has outlined this for officers. But it took them considerably longer to arrest her former boyfriend for the incident in January.

The Royal Cayman Islands Police Service has refused to comment on those allegations but both cases are now being investigated and neither party has been charged — which goes to the heart of the ongoing problems presented to the authorities of social media sites naming people arrested on the basis of unfounded allegations.

The RCIPS recently raised their concerns about the issue, saying that people should not be named following an arrest because it undermined their right to a fair hearing. Police can make an arrest purely on the suspicion of a crime, which can, and sometimes does, arise from false complaints.

“The practice of naming suspects, victims or other parties and posting their photographs disregards the impacts that such coverage has, not only on the fairness of the court process but on the lives of those whose identities are used as a kind of currency for readership,” the police said recently.

The police said they believe the naming and shaming of suspects is a threat to the judicial process and the health and welfare of those involved.

CNS and most of the mainstream media in Cayman refrains from naming members of the public who are arrested until they are charged, unless prominent people in the community are involved or where there are other reasons that we perceive present a wider public interest beyond the simple details of the arrest.

There is no legal prohibition to naming people who are arrested but there are occasions when the court intervenes and places a blackout on reporting. This is often the case with allegations of sexual offences or cases that involve minors and are put in place to protect victims or children.

Cayman Marl Road, which styles itself as only 97% accurate, has taken a position of naming everyone who is arrested unless they are minors, according to its publisher, Sandra Hill.

She recently opted to identify a man who is charged with sexual offences against children, even though the case was sealed by the courts and subject to a media gag order, which is why it has not been reported elsewhere.

CNS asked Hill why she takes a different position on her site about naming people who have been arrested regardless of the situation.

“At the moment the standard is to name based on subjective factors that the media houses themselves have set,” she said, noting that politicians and others are named out of public interest.

“We do not believe there should be any subjective elements to the decision at all. So it’s either name everyone or name no one. The editorial board at CMR has taken the position that everyone should be named across the board – without fear or favour. Having said that, all accused persons have the opportunity to speak with us, as many have done, and make any comment they wish to make in relation to the arrest or the incident at hand,” she added.

“We fully appreciate that there’s no legal impediment to CMR doing what we do and have utilized an approach that is considered customary in many other jurisdictions,” Hill said, indicating the situation in the United States, where the laws surrounding the reporting on court cases are very different.

“By doing it this way, we aim to remove the stigma of getting arrested and instead allow people to understand that being arrested does not equate either way to guilt. It’s just a matter of public information that in our estimation there is no need to hide.

“We understand that many in Cayman are not used to this but in the short time that we have been doing it the public perception about the naming of arrested persons has already started to shift,” Hill claimed.

“In relation to this particular matter with Giselle, she had easy access to our prime administrator and chose not to contact her at all. Instead she sent messages via other persons that was entirely not helpful and did not reach out to us directly,” she said.