The Times - UK (2022-06-11)

the times | Saturday June 11 2022 2GM 19

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ment has now been lost. Hartin fears

that the Ashcroft family, who are well

connected on the island and own

several of the media outlets, want her to

give up her children for ever.

“I have never been allowed back in

my home since the accident, so I asked

for my birth certificate, my jewellery

and my cellphone. I thought Andrew

was reluctant to give me back my phone

because of all of my business notes and

DocuSigns [electronic documents]”.

Hartin is now in effect out of their

business.

It seems surprising that her partner

did not support her throughout her

ordeal, she says.

“Ashcroft and I were not doing well,

we had been living in separate condos

for a year and a half, we stayed almost as

a front for the business and the child-

ren. We hid the fact that we weren’t

together from his father, who would

have been very disappointed.”

They had, she says, already decided

to separate.

Hartin strongly believes the accident

happened at the perfect time for Ash-

croft. If she ends up in jail, “he doesn’t

have to pay me my shares in the com-

pany or split custody with me. He could

have offered me a helping hand or he

could have trampled on my hands and

let me fall from the cliff, which he did.”

Instead of going home when she was

released from jail, she claims she was

put in a house in the jungle by herself,

her credit cards and cash were taken

away, and she was given only a Sam-

sung phone and some old gym wear.

“Ashcroft brought my kids to see me

and after an hour he gave me an envel-

ope that had custody papers in it.

The only thing keeping me

going is my children — I would

never sign that.”

Hartin says that she was des-

perate to keep seeing her child-

ren but the Belize police had

taken her driving licence, her

social security card and

her passport.

It was not until

her mother, Can-

dice Castiglio-

ne, managed

to find her

that she

was driven

to the

family

resort to

see her

children. But she was blocked from

getting into her house by her old secur-

ity team, she says. She went down to a

restaurant to see if the twins were

having lunch there. “I just wanted to

hug my babies. Andrew grabbed them

and took them away.”

Under the law in Belize, an unmar-

ried mother is the sole custodian of her

children until they are 18. In order for

her twins to have been removed from

her care, “you have to prove that I am

unfit or mentally ill or a danger to my

children”, Hartin says.

She was detained for common

assault after remonstrating with the

restaurant staff over not being allowed

to see her children. She was also

charged with possession of cocaine.

“They found a bag they said had a white

substance in it, but it was tested to be

Tylenol [paracetamol]. But my bail was

revoked and I went back to jail again.”

Meanwhile, her children had left the

country with their father for a break.

She feels that “he was effectively kid-

napping them”.

Ashcroft asked for custody, so she

went to court. “I showed up, the whole

thing took 20 minutes, there was no

evidence given. I was told I got 12 hours

a month, on two Saturdays between

9am and 3pm, I wouldn’t even get to say

goodnight to my children. It was cruel.”

Hartin tried to challenge the ver-

dict but her visitation rights were

revoked completely after news-

paper reports stated that she

had hired a hit squad to assassi-

nate the magistrate, an allegation

she vehemently denies.

“I knew then that he [Ashcroft]

planned to leave the country

permanently.” Her

children, she says,

are wise for their

age. “They don’t

think it’s right. I

tried to explain

why I’m not

with them

and why I

am fight-

ing to see

them so

News

hard. I explained to them it’s like

having one cookie and you need to

split it, your daddy wants the bigger

half of the cookie and I want to cut it in

half so it’s equal.”

Last month, the children dis-

appeared again with their father.

“From what I have heard, they had

enough bags that they’ve moved,”

Hartin says.

She thinks they are in the Turks and

Caicos Islands, a British Overseas Ter-

ritory where the Ashcroft family has

land. “But I don’t even know where to

send birthday presents,” she says.

Meanwhile, she is still awaiting a trial

date for her manslaughter case.

Ashcroft, she says, has moved on and

is dating. “As long as they treat the

children properly, it doesn’t bother me.”

She seems remarkably composed as

she tells her story, barely drawing

breath for 50 minutes.

How did a farm girl from Ontario ev-

er end up in Belize? “I used to ride bare-

back through the fields. I had chickens.

My job was to collect the eggs, my dad

was a butcher, my mother was a home-

maker, we lived in the middle of no-

where. I was sweeping, mopping and

cooking from the age of seven, we had

a wringer washer. It was humble begin-

nings. I had six brothers and three sis-

ters, but I left because I felt I had out-

grown my town, Kingston.”

At the age of 19, she met a doctor, who

introduced her to fine dining and travel

and encouraged her to qualify as an es-

tate agent. When they split up, she

moved in 2014 to work in Belize, where

she met Ashcroft. “I wasn’t interested in

him at all,” she says, but he won her over

with humour and persistence.

“It was a lot of fun at the beginning, I

had money in my bank from my work,

he was living in a hotel with maid ser-

vice and anything he wanted. I had

never experienced anything like that.

He showed me this different world

which was stress-free.” They set up

their hotel and property business to-

gether. “We had a great time. But I

didn’t want to [get married].”

She must regret ever having made

her home in Belize. “A part of me thinks,

‘Why did I ever come here?’ but I don’t

regret it because I had my kids.” She is

appealing again this month to gain cus-

tody. “I want my babies back in my

arms. I want to leave here, there is no

way my children will want to grow up in

such a small country given the media

circus surrounding them. I want An-

drew and I to sit and talk like mature

adults and find a place that would suit

all of us. We could share our children

like regular people do.”

She does not understand, she says,

why she is still painted as a grasping,

unhinged socialite. “I pickle beans, for

goodness’ sake. I am into meditation

and I love nature. I don’t have painted

nails, I have calluses. I am hard-work-

ing. I had a career and a business. It’s so

unfair how I am being portrayed.”

Without her mother, she says, she

does not think she could have survived

her ordeal. “I have also met random

kind people who have helped. A lady

signed my bail, I had never met her, but

she said she thought I was being treated

badly and wanted to help.”

And what about the police officer

who died — does she ever think of him?

“At first, I was instructed not to speak at

all about it, which I now regret. Both of

our lives changed that day: his children

lost their father, a mother lost her son,

I lost everything too, and I have to live

with this. My anxiety is really bad, I

have nightmares. I am terrified to be in

a crowd because I don’t know if some-

one is going to come at me.

“[Henry’s] sister said she’s going to

kill me. But I just want to heal, I want to

process what happened.”

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Jasmine Hartin is

charged with the

manslaughter of Henry

Jemmott. He was found

dead off a jetty near

their homes. Left, with

Andrew Ashcroft, the

son of Tory donor Lord

Ashcroft, and their twins

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