YouTube videos land St Michael man behind bars

A 51-year-old St Michael man who used YouTube to post menacing content about a paralegal has pleaded guilty and has been remanded pending sentencing later this month.

Curtis Deighton Wilkinson, of Garden Land, Country Road, admitted in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court on Friday to using a computer on May 4, 2024, to send a YouTube video that was menacing in character and was reckless as to whether it caused annoyance to paralegal Ekundayo Leon-Barker.

The court heard that in 2022, Wilkinson visited the legal office where Leon-Barker works and asked for advice on suing someone whose dogs had killed his sheep. The paralegal told him to get the owner’s name and call the police to report the matter.

Wilkinson later returned and gave a number to Leon-Barker, who called it, but the person who answered said they were not the dog owner and they would pass on the message. Leon- Barker never took any money from the accused.

Earlier this year, Wilkinson returned to the office and demanded that Leon-Barker pay him $1 650 for the dead sheep, threatening to put him on the Internet. He visited the office several times after that, saying the same thing. In April, while at the office, the complainant was informed that the accused was outside. Wilkinson started behaving aggressively and began recording the complainant while demanding money and calling him a thief and a liar. Leon-Barker told him not to post the video on social media, and the accused replied, “You are going on the internet as a thief”.

Police were called and warned Wilkinson not to post the video, but on May 4, the complainant began to receive calls that there was a post of him on the popular sharing platform YouTube. He contacted the police, and Wilkinson was called and directed to take down the video, which he did. However, three days later, Leon-Barker received another call that there were several videos of the accused defaming his character and saying that he did not care if he was charged.

In court, Wilkinson told Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes that since 2022 he had been seeking information from the law office regarding his dead sheep and had grown frustrated.

He was remanded until May 27.