Now death in paradise socialite is arrested for assault
After ‘accidental shooting’ of her Belize policeman friend...
THE socialite who shot a police chief dead on a beach in Belize was rearrested last night.
Jasmine Hartin, estranged partner of Andrew Ashcroft, was detained for common assault when she went to a police station to answer bail.
It is believed the assault allegation is related to a confrontation on Tuesday with Mr Ashcroft, the younger son of billionaire Tory grandee Lord Ashcroft.
Her arrest came hours after she broke her silence and told how she ‘accidentally’ killed Superintendent Henry Jemmott, sending her life into a spiral.
The 32-year-old mother of Lord Ashcroft’s grandchildren is waiting to stand trial over the shooting in a case which has rocked the sleepy island of Ambergris Caye, off the coast of the Central American nation.
‘I have got nothing to hide,’ Miss Hartin said. ‘I am fighting for my life right now. I’ve lost everything and I don’t feel safe here any more.’
Speaking for the first time about the fateful night, she said she cries every day for her ‘friend’ and his grieving family – who say the Canadian expat has yet to be in touch to offer her condolences.
Miss Hartin said she is haunted by the night last month that Mr Jemmott – whom she describes as a ‘ great man’ – was killed in her company on a secluded pier near a luxury resort she ran with Mr Ashcroft at San Pedro.
‘Henry was my friend,’ she said. ‘It was an accident. There’s literally not a day that goes by when I don’t cry and my chest doesn’t hurt and ache for his kids, for his family, for him… It’s something that will never leave me. I wanted to say sorry to his family… But I wasn’t allowed to do any of that.’
Miss Hartin said her world began to unravel when she was violently attacked at a party on May 22 on mainland Belize and she rang Mr Jemmott, a father of five, for help.
She said Mr Jemmott thought she was in danger and advised her to arm herself. It was as she practised handling his police service pistol a week later that it went off, killing him. ‘I went to hand it to him and he said to take the magazine out,’ she told MailOnline.
‘I tried to but it was stuck. It went off. He fell on me. I tried to get loose from under him to try to render CPR or something. When I tried to get loose he slipped into the water.’
She was charged with the lesser offence of manslaughter by negligence, which carries a maximum prison sentence of nine months or a fine of around £3,500.
Miss Hartin claims she is now in a fight for her four-year-old twins, Elle and Charlie, with property developer Andrew Ashcroft, 42, from whom she has been estranged for some time, but was putting on a public show.
Earlier this week she released videos in which she claimed she has been blocked from seeing the children. They showed her involved in a confrontation with Mr Ashcroft at the luxury resort.
She was rearrested when she reported to San Ignacio police station last night. Her mother Candice Castiglione, 66, who had flown in from Canada, looked on in disbelief.
While being led away, a stunned Miss Hartin called out: ‘I’m being detained for something in San Pedro, I’m not sure why.’ Mr Ashcroft was contacted for comment.
‘Something that will never leave me’