TRINIDAD: Musician demands apology from Seventh Day Adventist after murder links

Trinidad & Tobago Guardian– Musician and social justice activist Lou Lyons has demanded a public apology from the South Caribbean Conference of Seventh-Day Adventist after an image of him was shared in connection with the murder of special prosecutor Randall Hector.

In a pre-action protocol letter sent yesterday, Lyon’s lawyer Joel Roper claimed that his client suffered significant distress after an image of him attending a service at a church at Stanmore Avenue in Port-of-Spain was shared on social media after Hector’s murder.

The image of Lyons had an accompanying caption alleging that he was not known to the congregation, was seen texting and speaking on his cellphone, and seen walking in the direction Hector was at when he was shot and killed.

Roper noted that Lyons is in fact a longstanding member of the church.

“This development undoubtedly cast our client in a negative light and numerous members of the public as evinced by their comments on the various social media posts that shared the initial message started to assume the worst of our client and to associate him with being one of, if not the primary suspect in the tragic death of Mr Randall Hector,” Roper said.

He claimed that the posts tarnished Lyons’ reputation and that of his band Freetown Collective as they were in the process of closing “very important” corporate sponsorship deals.

“Consequently, those deals are now in jeopardy as there still remains a negative cloud and/or shadow over the image and likeness of our client even though he has since put out a statement that sought to rectify the initial misinformation that was spreading quickly throughout the public via social media,” Roper said.

Roper pointed out that after the reckless dissemination, Pastor Chad Bray, the pastor at the church, reached out to Lyons to apologise for the accusations made.

He stated that the image would have had to emanate from the church.

“It is also unarguable that the misuse of private photos that were in the possession of the Stanmore Avenue Seventh Day Adventist Church and by extension the South Caribbean Conference of Seventh Day Adventist has adversely affected our client, including his personal and professional reputation,” Roper said.

Roper demanded that the church immediately issue and widely disseminate a press release with a public apology. He also requested that the church confirm or deny whether it or its officials edited the footage and released it into the public domain.

He gave the church 28 days in which to respond and accede to his requests before he files a defamation lawsuit against it.

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