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
