Blackmailed

Singer, former model and marketing consultant Ronnie Morris testified that soon after meeting Andrew Franklyn in 2011, he began receiving relentless, almost hourly calls from the man requesting money.

Testifying in the blackmail trial of Franklyn and Carolann Yolanda McClean, Morris told the nine-member jury in the No. 5 Supreme Court that his boss introduced him to Andy Francis, who he later found out was Franklyn. He said that one day, the accused called him, appealing for help. Franklyn went to the recording studio where Morris worked and lived at that time and talked about his family and financial problems, saying he wanted to move to Canada and needed funds for a ticket and to get set up there. Morris said he gave Franklyn some money to assist.

He recalled another instance where Franklyn asked for assistance with an emergency medical issue, saying the doctor had informed him he had a cyst that was rupturing.

“It was always something where the money was needed immediately, like the electricity about to get cut off tomorrow,” Morris continued, saying that the funds were always in small amounts of between $100 and $300.

In response to questions from Principal State Counsel Olivia Davis, who is prosecuting the matter along with State Counsel Eleazar Williams, that at that time, giving Franklyn the money was not affecting him financially because he always had work and was used to giving people monetary assistance.

Describing the calls at first as cordial, Morris stated that soon after he began receiving threats from Franklyn and a woman who began calling on his behalf.

“They would say if I didn’t get the money, they would claim that they went by me and we did something sexual. They would say they would send people from up by them for me,” he recalled.

Morris testified that the calls, which would start at 4 a.m. and continue at close intervals throughout the day, first came from a landline number and then a cell phone. When he blocked these, calls would come from unknown numbers. Due to the frequency of the calls, he had to get a separate phone for business purposes.

Morris said he was stressed due to the number of calls and threats he was receiving, so he started performing only on the hotel scene and moved out of the studio.

After confiding to his mentor about the situation, he reported the matter to the police. During an identification parade, he pointed out Franklyn and co-accused McClean, who he recognised as a woman he had given money to for Franklyn on several occasions.

Franklyn and McClean, both of Edgecumbe Tenantry, St Philip, are accused that between March 21, 2011, and April 27, 2011, and March 22, 2011, and April 17, 2011, they made unwarranted demands of the sums of $25 000 and $12 100, respectively, from Morris, with menaces.

In cross-examination, defence counsel Samuel Legay, who is representing Franklyn, asked Morris when the accused man had first contacted him after they met. The witness said it was a few hours after their initial meeting and he picked the accused up from Bridgetown and took him to the studio which was not far from Franklyn’s home. He said they spoke about family and music, watched the Grammys, and Franklyn ended up sleeping there.

“The next morning, you went into the bedroom where the accused man was lying down, and you decided to fondle him,” Legay put it to the witness.

“No, that was one of the threats he would use to get money from me,” Morris replied, saying that after he dropped Franklyn home that day, he gave him $200.

“Do you recall having sex with the accused man?… Don’t you recall telling him ‘if you give me what I want, I will give you what you want?’,” Legay queried.

“I never had sex with the accused man…. We never had a sexual talk or sexual relations,” Morris responded, adding that after another instance where Franklyn came to his residence, he only met him at the gas station, by a phone booth or in front of Cave Shepherd to give him money.

Senior Counsel Michael Lashley is representing McClean along with attorneys Kellyanne Blackman, Sharise Dottin and Jayde Kennedy.

The trial continues on Wednesday.