A day after denying allegations of sexual molestation, Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman yesterday secured an injunction barring his accuser from publishing any material relating to the allegations in the print or electronic media.
The injunction was granted in the High Court, Trotman’s party the AFC announced in a statement yesterday, while adding that his accuser, Johnny Anthony Welshman, had also been ordered to remove all malicious content from his Facebook page, where the allegations were first published.
The party said too that in his Ex Parte Affidavit in support of the application for the injunction,
Trotman has also sought damages in excess of $50 million for libel contained in a statements allegedly made by Welshman and published in the Stabroek News, Guyana Times and on Welshman’s Facebook page.
The AFC statement also expressed the party’s unequivocal support for Trotman, its co-founder in face of the recent “spurious and unfounded allegations leveled against him.”
Earlier in the day before the injunction was granted, Trotman had expressed confidence that he would be “completely exonerated” of the allegations and added that he is certain that he was “set up.”
Speaking to the media after the official launch of the National Assembly’s revamped website at the Public Buildings, Trotman said that he has since made contact with his accuser’s parents, who are expected to address the press shortly.
Trotman described the allegations as “absolutely political and well-timed.” On Sunday, he had suggested that they were intended to provide a distraction from the serious prevailing political situation in the country that would likely require him to guide the National Assembly through the debate of a no-confidence motion against the government, which he called “the strongest test to Guyana’s constitutional democracy.”
Crime Chief Leslie James has since confirmed that the matter is under investigation. He told Stabroek News yesterday that investigators are currently examining statements made and based on the outcome advice will be sought.
“When you got God on your side, these things… four or five years ago I would have run away but now I am confident I will be exonerated. I am not bothered,” Trotman told reporters when asked if the detailed account that was published in one of the daily newspapers may bother him in any way.
Asked whether the police had been in touch with him, Trotman said no. He added that he has been told that the police are dealing with the matter and in this regard he was relieved. “I have every confidence not only will the police do a good and thorough investigation but that I will be complete exonerated,” he said, while adding that he was going to cooperate.
Asked why he was so confident that he would be exonerated, Trotman said, “Because a lie can’t stand and every lie needs columns of lies to keep that one lie up.”
Trotman acknowledged that Welshman did go to his office a few weeks ago. He said that the secretary had informed him that a Johnny Welshman was there to see him and he knew the person having that name to be living in Brazil.
He said that he later met the man, who identified himself as Johnny Welshman’s son. He said the young man told him that he was back from Trinidad and needed a reference.
He admitted that he did agree to prepare a reference, which according to him was “quite general,” given the fact that in this case he knew the family and not the individual.
He noted that that his secretary was the one who prepared the document and he (Trotman) signed it. The document, he said, was collected from the secretary.
Trotman stressed that he did not know the young man personally but knew his parents. “I didn’t recognise him. He had to introduce [himself] and tell me who he was,” he said.
He did, however, add that he could not say if the encounter was the first time he was seeing the man.
Trotman assured the media that he had no prior indication from the young man that he would make public any allegations. Asked if he felt he was set up, Trotman responded, “I am obviously now realising that I was set up.”
Welshman said that he came to Guyana in July to put the matter to rest and seek justice after he recently found out that he was very ill.
