‘Abused’ Jasmine Hartin freed from Belize jail as lawyer claims she’s been ‘thrown to wolves’ by Lord Ashcroft’s family
JASMINE Hartin has been freed from jail after a lawyer who claimed she has been “thrown to the wolves” by Lord Ashcroft’s family posted bail for her.
The 32-year-old Canadian socialite, who is the partner of the Tory billionaire donor’s son, had returned to jail for breaking her bail conditions after she shot a police officer in Belize.
She faces trial over the death of Supt Henry Jemmott, 42, on the island of Ambergris Caye on May 28.
Hartin was arrested and sent back to jail after footage emerged showing her confronting estranged partner Andrew Ashcroft at the resort where they lived with their twin children.
But lawyer Wendy Auxillou has now secured her release from the scorpion infested Belize Central Prison and alleges she is “being psychologically and emotionally abused” by the Ashcroft family.
Auxillou said Hartin is being “thrown to the wolves” and felt sympathetic towards her,
“In the beginning, people viewed her as some type of rich entitled kid, basically,” she said.
“After what transpired with her being locked out of her house and kept away from her kids and all that, she’s now being viewed with a bit of sympathy.
“Many of us women are victim to this. Rich, powerful men do things like this all the time.”
Auxillou said a friend of Hartin’s family had asked her for help and she posted bail by supplying the title to a property she owns as collateral.
Meanwhile, Hartin’s mother, Candace Castiglione, said her daughter’s treatment amounted to “persecution from the Ashcroft family”.
“Where is their dignity? Do the right thing by my daughter!,” she wrote on Facebook.
Hartin’s detention came as she claimed she accidentally shot dead her pal Jemmott, with his own pistol after he urged her to arm herself when she told him she had been sexually assaulted.
Belizean authorities accused her of common assault upon resort manager Sarah Lee Grisham-Clothier during the incident at the Grand Colony.
They also added a new charge of possession over a small quantity of cocaine found on her on the night she shot Jemmott.
She was later taken to the Supreme Court and remanded in the notorious Central Belize Prison after the manager of the resort where she lived with Lord Ashcroft’s youngest son Andrew withdrew her bail funds.