I’ve a dear friend who is on a path that will lead that friend into serious trouble. No matter how I point that out to that friend, that friend persists in pursuing a hellbent course.

Nonetheless, my constant prayer is that that friend will not come to any harm and that that friend will, one day, sooner rather than later, again become wholesome in thought and purpose.

If anyone, in the meantime, deliberately takes advantage of my dear friend, it’d be as if they’d simultaneously taken advantage of me.

Over to you God!

Sigh!

A sexual predator is a sexual predator and comes in many guises —sometimes, as we’ve already seen, cloaked as elected officials at the local level, such as Terry London, who’s presently before the courts for indecently assaulting a female US soldier. I hope the soldier has the guts to go through with the case, else London’s bridge may not come tumbling down to earth as it deserves.

But, that’s digressing, so, back to the point!

The one about whom, really, I’m pressing this post, is one who, despite his academic achievements, seems quite illiterate, for, from all evidence, his warped mind has convinced him that his tenure of public office means he can browse/browbeat any pubic orifice he fancies.

Such is the nature of several complaints I’ve received from distraught women whom I’ve had cause to counsel and who, nearly all, are his constituents.

But, who, exactly, is Vernell Haynes? Why, he has been the elected Local Government Representative for the district of Macoya/Trincity in the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation (TPRC), Trinidad and Tobago since 2003, one who, by the way, also holds a relatively senior job with the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards.

Yep! Bureau of Standards! Makes you think, at first, that he’d be a man of high principles, ent? Well, the evidence at hand says: “Not!” For his reported penchant is to lull his target into a false sense of security, then pounce.

A few have escaped his lustful clutches. Most have not. None, sadly, have had the gumption or support to report him to the police, such is their fear of what further injury he may wreak upon them, whether that injury is as insignificant as having them de-rostered from their whatever casual or temporary menial job with the TPRC; or maybe is their subjugation’s due to the almost hypnotic charm his material splendour has on them, for he’s no looker.

Sigh!

As said at outset: “A sexual predator is a sexual predator and comes in many guises.” Time, therefore, shall tell whom, when and where next this disguised one shall strike. My fervent invocation is that Heaven swiftly visit the rascal with all the wrath Heaven can muster whenever he next does, for, trust me, certainly, again, he shall.

Therefore, spread the word yall, for our ladyfolk need to be protected from Vernell Haynes, Terry London and their ilk.