Attorney General Wilfred Abrahams, who was the target of a false video claim of receiving campaign funds from him two days before the general election, has described the act as “a lapse in judgement”.
Akeem Durant, 27, of Breedy Land, Christ Church, previously admitted in Oistins Magistrates’ Court to sending a menacing electronic communication via cellphone that caused or was likely to cause annoyance, distress, or anxiety to Abrahams, then Christ Church East parliamentary candidate.
During his reappearance on Monday, Acting Chief Magistrate Deidre McKenna ordered Durant, who has no prior convictions, to complete 80 hours of community service following Abrahams’ plea for leniency.
The chief magistrate told him: “I believe you when you said that you did not mean anything sinister by it. You thought it was funny and a joke, but now you understand the ramifications of it and will not make this type of mistake again going forward. People don’t understand social media is a very important tool right now that everyone is using either for good or bad, so you need to be careful what you post.”
Speaking to Barbados TODAY outside the court moments after his sentencing, Durant said he had been through “a lot” since being charged, and urged caution in posting.
“Social media is not good,” he said. “From the time something comes out, persons just take it up and run with it….
Watch what you post even on your WhatsApp. If it get to the wrong hands, it gets all over the place in a rush.”
Durant admitted that he had gone to Abrahams’ branch office and personally apologised “as it was the right thing to do”.
Abrahams said: “I am satisfied that he did not mean the consequences of his action and that it was a lapse of judgement on his part. I am aware that somebody else extracted it from his page and started to circulate it for their own reason and I know who the person is. I cannot be a lawyer for 30 plus years and look to criminalise a youngster for foolishness. He came to my office and gave a heartfelt apology.”
“He was so sincere, and I told him I would work with him. My recommendation to the court was that he get some community service, and if he successfully completes that, then his record will be clean, and it will have no conviction on it.”
Stating that the incident could have been “catastrophic” for himself, as the video had been circulated around the world with election observers present on the island, the newly re-elected MP said: “I am lucky that my record stands for itself.”
The attorney general urged people to be cautious in what they chose to post on social media.
He said: “Think about what you are posting. In your quest to get likes and followers, persons tend to push it and push it.
If you push it concerning yourself, that is one thing, but if you look to generate popularity on something involving someone else, you have to think it through as to how this would affect that person. Am I being fair to that person? Could it hurt that person? And worse yet am I committing a criminal offence because I don’t think when he did that he thought he would end up before the law courts.”
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