Revealed: The man targeted by Baroness Bra’s ‘racist’ attack after yacht crash
He’s a wealth manager who claims Mone’s ‘waste of white skin’ message was a slur on his Indian heritage. She insists she thought he was ‘100pc white British’. Here, both give their very different sides of a tragedy that cost a young man’s life
F‘You need to get a grip and have respect for a guy that was killed’
OR those fortunate enough to be there, the final night of the 72nd Cannes Film Festival in 2019 was a glorious affair. Well-heeled guests mingled with the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Antonio Banderas and Catherine Deneuve, and watched as South Korean film director Bong Joon-ho scooped the Palme d’Or for his hit film Parasite.
Meanwhile, half a mile off-shore, lingerie entrepreneur ‘Baroness Bra’ Michelle Mone was lunching alfresco with friends at La Guerite, a restaurant on tiny Île Sainte-Marguerite, unaware that their perfect early summer evening was about to be rocked by tragedy.
Hours later, after returning to a superyacht belonging to Mone’s husband Douglas Barrowman, one of the couple’s deckhands was killed after another vessel, carrying other friends, struck their bow at speed while attempting a high-speed daredevil close pass.
Now, three years on, 50-year-old Mone has found herself at the centre of an ugly racism row involving a passenger on the boat that struck hers.
During a highly emotive group WhatsApp chat between passengers weeks after the accident, the Tory peer is said to have called the man, who is of Indian heritage, ‘a waste of a man’s white skin’ and his fiancee a ‘mental loony’ and ‘nut case bird’.
Yesterday, as she sought to defend herself, Lady Mone’s representatives said ‘she strongly denies that she is a racist, a sexist or that she has a lack of respect for those persons genuinely suffering with mental health difficulties’.
While she has not confirmed the exact wording of her messages, Mone has said that at the time she sent them she was speaking up out of respect for Jake
Feldwhere, the 27-year-old British deckhand who was killed in the incident.
Horrified that the other passenger — who the Mail can reveal is Monacobased chartered wealth manager Richard Lynton-Jones — had carried on partying after the accident and even posted photos on social media, she said she was ‘defending this young boy’.
She insists the term she used is not racist and that she believed LyntonJones was ‘100 per cent white and British’. Mone said: ‘Since when did calling out an entitled privileged white man constitute racism?’
The ugly phrase she used is believed to have its roots in South Africa in the late 1940s and early 50s, where it was used by middle-class whites in positions of power to describe poor white people who were believed to have brought shame on their race at a time when they were determined to reveal their moral superiority over black South Africans.
In a phone call from France yesterday, 42-year-old Lynton-Jones, who has previously worked with Mone and her husband, told me: ‘I’ve done nothing wrong apart from be a victim of racism. My whole issue here is the fact that she was racist. She was mentally abusing my then girlfriend who is my ex-fiancee now because of everything that happened.’
According to The Guardian, which published what are claimed to be the contents of the WhatsApp messages, Mone questioned
whether or not Lynton-Jones had genuinely suffered psychologically after the accident, claiming he and his partner had been partying ‘only a few days after’.
He replied that he had been seriously traumatised by the yacht accident, adding: ‘I would prefer you back the f*** off.’ Mone then allegedly responded: ‘OMG what a pile of c***!! You are talking to me, a smart, bright, individual who doesn’t get taken in by your s**t!
‘In fact my bulls**t detector was on you from day 1. You & your mental loony of a girlfriend have been parting (sic) like mad! . . . You need to get a grip and have respect for a guy that was killed! Funny how your mad girlfriend has now deleted all the pictures, don’t worry I have screenshots of the dates and times. 48 hours after the guy was killed.
‘Your [sic] a low life, a waste of a mans [sic] white skin so don’t give us your lies. Your [sic] a total disgrace,’ before adding: ‘Now you deal with the police enquiries including your nut case bird.’
He is said to have replied: ‘A waste of a white man’s skin? Did not know you were racist, Michelle.’ Fifteen minutes later, Lady Mone allegedly wrote back: ‘Your [sic] blocked and take your mental case to the police station.’
Lynton-Jones, from Ferndown in Dorset, began his career with the Queen’s bank Coutts, working in Jersey on offshore services for clients. He was a vice president at Barclays Wealth in both Jersey and Monaco before joining the Monaco office of investment bank UBS.
He specialises in working with ultra high-net worth individuals with investable assets of at least 50 million euros. In 2018, he joined Mone and Barrowman’s new virtual currency venture which saw them launch a coin called Equi which they claimed would be the British Bitcoin. Lynton-Jones was appointed head of capital raising and investor relations.
Asked yesterday why he came forward two and a half years after receiving the texts from Mone, he told me: ‘It took six months to get over that yacht crash.
‘My fiancee tried to kill herself. Then, after many years, we finally have a platform to stand up to people who are racist, with George Floyd and Black Lives Matter and We Race As One [the F1 World Championship initiative].
‘Racism has no place in this society, let alone for a member of the House of Lords who should be safeguarding the civil rights of the British population and should not go out and say “you’re a waste of a man’s white skin”. That’s disgusting.’
Mone, however, is also adamant that she has done nothing wrong.
‘The accusations I have read today against me are full of contradictions,’ she said yesterday.
‘I will set the record straight on
this defamation before deciding on any legal action. What I do know is the disgrace this man made of the young boy’s life who was lost; partying with his girlfriend on Instagram stories days after the tragedy and not responding to the police.
‘Almost three years ago, I defended a young boy who tragically lost his life. The investigation they are involved in is still ongoing. I will assist in any way that I can.’
Her lawyers also said that it was ‘illogical as it is inconceivable that she could or would have made such a comment or made it with the slightest racist intent’ because she had no knowledge that the man ‘was anything other than white British, as his appearance is 100 per cent white, with a cut-glass accent’.
They added that Mone, who was appointed to the House of Lords by David Cameron in 2015, believed vehemently that he was ‘100 per cent white and British’ and there was ‘no trace whatsoever of non-white colouring or any features’ on the man.
The allegations against Mone come at a time when French prosecutors are considering criminal charges against the 42-year-old Frenchman who skippered Vision, the vessel which hit Barrowman and Mone’s 88ft boat, Minx.
The Mail understands that manslaughter charges have already been ruled out but that he may face other lesser charges after blood tests revealed that he performed his highly risky manoeuvre while high on cannabis.
So what really did happen that day two and a half years ago?
During the lunchtime meal at La Guerite, the guests agreed to continue their party back on board their luxury boats.
Vision, which had been chartered by British internet gaming millionaire Richard Skelhorn, and Barrowman and Mone’s boat were rafted together so that everyone could mingle. By 6.30pm, everyone was back on board and the drinking and partying continued.
In the midst of this high-spirited atmosphere, Vision’s French skipper, egged on by guests, allegedly performed a swallow dive into the sea from the roof of the boat.
According to the official report of the UK Government’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch, it was still daylight when, at around 8.30, the crew of Vision started preparing for their return voyage to Monaco ‘with good visibility, light airs and the sea was calm’.
Vision’s French skipper, businessman Skelhorn, who had chartered the yacht, and Lynton-Jones all went up onto the bridge, where the businessman asked the skipper if, as they departed, they could drive past Minx to allow guests to wave goodbye to their friends.
Minx’s own skipper started the engines and crewman Jake, from Midhurst in West Sussex, who had just arrived in France to take up his post, went to the foredeck to prepare for lifting the anchor.
After Vision had manoeuvred clear, it was discovered that a guest’s mobile phone had been left on board and the boat was taken back so it could be returned.
Soon after, Vision set off westwards, in the opposite direction to its destination, Monaco, turning at a distance of 750 metres before the skipper began to accelerate in readiness for his ‘fast slalom-type manoeuvre’ down the port-side of the still-anchored Minx.
As its speed increased to six times the speed limit, 78-ton Vision began planing, creating a ‘rooster tail’ water spray from its stern as the skipper showed off in front of his nine passengers.
According to the official report, Vision’s skipper steered directly towards Minx intending to swing away at the last minute but the boat did not respond fast enough because of ‘hydrodynamic effects’ and it collided with the bow, striking Jake and causing him catastrophic head injuries.
Most of the rest of the guests and crew including Mone, her husband and father-in-law were also thrown to the deck. The report concluded: ‘No consideration was given to safe passing distances, nor were the crew or guests on either yacht warned of the event; the speed limit was also disregarded.’
It noted, too, that the skipper was under-qualified and that his RYA Yachtmaster qualification did not cover working in a commercial environment, and added that he had ‘underestimated the risks’ associated with trying to ‘fast, close pass by’.
According to French emergency services, the extent of Jake’s injuries meant he ‘could not be resuscitated’, although guests on board Minx tried to save him.
Speaking earlier this year, when the Marine Accident Investigation Branch released its report, his mother Marie-Ann James, stepfather Neil James and sister Beth paid tribute to him as ‘very independent, very helpful, always caring’. They said: ‘Not a day goes
‘I defended a young boy who tragically lost his life’
Guests tried to save Jake but he was too badly injured
by without us thinking about it. As we continue to accept our sadness we also try to remember Jake with a smile and love in our hearts.’
Described by Beth as ‘the kindest human’, she added: ‘I know he would have gone very far in life. Unfortunately it was taken too soon. He is so dearly missed but the love will never die.’
This week’s racism row now threatens to overshadow the grief suffered by his family.
Screenshots that purport to be the ‘abusive’ messages have been sent to the House of Lords Commissioner for Standards, who has said he is unable to investigate Mone because the messages were not sent in the course of her parliamentary duties.
According to a House of Lords spokesman: ‘Where a complaint is received that relates to a member’s performance of their parliamentary duties and activities it will be investigated and, if the complaint is upheld, sanctions may follow.
‘However, where a complaint does not relate to a member’s parliamentary duties it is not covered by the Code or the remit of the Commissioner for Standards.’
For now, then, the row between Lynton-Jones and Baroness Mone is far from over. And what happens next remains to be seen.
But one thing is for certain; neither side is prepared to back down. And while Lynton-Jones insists he is the victim, Mone is determined to put up a fight.