A month after the George Wright domestic abuse scandal erupted in Jamaica, another Jamaican politician is now at the center of another abuse scandal. The General Secretary of the People’s National Party, Dayton Campbell is being accused of carnal abuse, with allegations being put forward that he had sexual relations with several underage girls as recently as 2016.
The allegations were initially made in March by PNP member and activist Karen Cross, who had threatened to burn the party down.
At the time when Cross made the allegations, no evidence nor statement from the victims was presented. For this reason, the police had closed their investigations into the matter. Campbell had also filed a defamation lawsuit against Cross.
However, earlier this week, Cross filed a counter-suit against Campbell with statements from three girls who alleged that they were sexually involved with the former Member of Parliament, while they were teenagers.
In the statements, one girl said she was 14 years old at the time of the involvement, while the two others were 15. Their names were not included in the statement.
Campbell, the former North West St Ann Member of Parliament, responded by saying that the allegations are politically motivated.
“This, what is taking place, is malicious and politically motivated,” Campbell said in a nearly 11-minute interview on Radio Jamaica’s Beyond The Headlines on Wednesday, May 26.
“These are people who are wicked beyond measure… If you want to take what you gave [to] me in terms of the General Secretary position in the party, that’s fair game for politics. But there are some other things that you did not give to me that you are also trying to take away,” he argued.
Under Jamaican law, it is an offense to have sex with a person under the age of 16. The Jamaica Constabulary Force said they are prepared to reopen the investigation if they receive additional information.
A coalition of various civil society groups called the Advocates Network and the National Integrity Action have called on Dr. Campbell to step aside for the time being, but Campbell says he has no intentions of resigning.
In the meantime, the People’s National Party says it is standing by Dayton Campbell.
In a statement released on May 27, the party said, “the party stands firm in support of our General Secretary, as we await the outcome of the police investigation in relation to the three documents.”
They also added that, “it cannot be right that individuals who are self-avowedly pursuing a political agenda can be allowed to achieve their objectives simply by making vile and unsupported accusations against senior officeholders. That would be a rogue’s charter.”
