Saying that he has had engagements with “girls” whom as a grown man he should have had no business dealing with, writer Ruel Johnson in a statement yesterday apologised to all the women who he has hurt while revealing that he has resigned from the party he helped to found.
He also said that he would seek counselling for the manner in which he uses words which has “damaged and severed relationships in my personal life.”
“A few of those engagements were with girls, not women, that I should have had no business dealing with as a grown man, and I should have known better. It does not matter that my behaviour fits no legal definition of statutory rape or grooming; the power relations were so skewed in my favour that it constituted an intrinsic inequality,” Johnson said in a statement posted on his Facebook page.
Over the past days two women with whom he has had relations have made damning allegations of abuse against Johnson and while he says he has a problem with the “predilection for connection to women” which has resulted in infidelity and his damaging usage of words, he did not accept that he was a serial abuser.
He challenged his main accuser, Stabroek News columnist Akola Thompson, to press charges since her specific accusations amount to allegations of criminal activity on his part. While he labelled her allegations as a “largely and deliberately fictitious account of our relationship, elements of which are contradicted by both public and private record,” he said she should be given whatever genuine support she can with regard to pressing charges.
“For the record, as much as I am against her false portrayal of events, I equally condemn any attempts to slander or shame her or any woman who comes forward with any story,” Johnson, former cultural policy adviser with the Ministry of Social Cohesion, said.
Thompson accused Johnson, who was the co-founder of The Citizen’s Initiative (TCI) political party from which he said he has now resigned on the invitation of party leader, Rondha-Ann Lam, of being a predator and grooming her when she was 16 years old.
She said Johnson had pretended to assist her with her writing to gain access to her and would coerce her through a steady stream of alcohol and manipulation. “Guidance would be given on my work yes but he would always find some way to make sexual comments and innuendos,” she wrote on her Facebook page.
In relation to his second public accuser, Sinah Kloss, a German national who had resided in Guyana at one time, Johnson said that while he refuses to otherwise delve into his private life in public he wanted to respond to a specific claim she made.
“What she describes as ‘burnout’ was a phase, in finishing her PhD, in which, among other things, she threatened to throw herself from my balcony and make it appear as if I had pushed her, because I was not paying enough attention to her. What she describes as ‘spitting’ is a singular incident in which, as I was lying down, she came over me, held my hands and screamed in my face that I should pay attention to her. Not wanting to physically remove her, yes, I spat at her, something I regretted doing the moment I did it. I ended the relationship after that. More than once, for the avoidance of conflict, I was forced to stay away from a place I frequented due to her turning up there,” Johnson said in his statement.
Kloss, in a Facebook post, said she believed Thompson’s allegations and said while she was not a minor, Johnson managed to manipulate her and slowly decreased her self-esteem, which she said was “common in histories of domestic violence… ”
She had noted that during the relationship she was at a low point, having to cope with the death of her father and exhaustion from her academic studies.
“…he used this moment to exert power, control me and abuse me verbally and make himself feel in charge… so many times that in the end it didn’t even hurt anymore,” Kloss had written.
In the comment, Kloss made it clear that she has no political agenda or any reason to denounce the behaviour of an ex-boyfriend somewhere far away. But she added that as a female scholar and activist, she felt it was her responsibility to support fellow victims who are speaking up now and are more victimised by strangers who call them liars.
‘Predilection’
Saying that over the past few days he had to take time to reflect on his behaviour, Johnson acknowledged what he termed as his “two major problems” and the first had to do with his predilection for connection to women.
“It is a problem that has resulted in infidelity, in damaged friendships, in conflicts in marriages – including mine – and the inability to sustain long-term relationships with them,” Johnson said, adding that he had been insensitive to personal situations.
The second problem, which he said is most important, Johnson said that his facility with words has been “a double-edged sword, not just a knife, one that has served me well in my political battles but has damaged and severed relationships in my personal life”.
“This is something I need, and will seek counselling for. I might not be guilty of the worst claims against me, but that does not make me innocent of bad behaviour,” he said.
He then apologized to his family, friends, and his son, saying that he was “sorry and ashamed that this has come to this”. He apologized to his wife, Cristal, “for what she has been subjected to”.
“To the women I have hurt – including Sinah and Akola – I am truly, genuinely sorry. You should not be silenced and you should be allowed to speak your truth. I am open to reconciliation and a direct apology to anyone whom I have caused pain. If nothing else, I hope that my being called out on my behaviour sets a standard when it comes to powerful men in this country and their behaviour towards women. No woman should be silenced, and no man offered protection because of his wealth, public status or political affiliation,” he further said.
And as it relates to his employment at the Kaieteur News, Johnson said he raised the issue for discussion at a meeting as soon as it became public and his employer, Glen Lall, also did the same.
“I have invited female staff members to come speak to me at their convenience and have me address whatever concerns they might have with working with me,” he said.
