David “Jumpy” Hartshorn, the owner of Projetech and the main financier of the muck-racking blog the TCI Journal, has been described as a “wicked and destructive liar” by publisher & Editor-in-Chief of the Turks and Caicos SUN, Hayden Boyce.

Boyce made the comments after it was drawn to his attention that Hartshorn wrote a letter to the TCI Journal saying that he never gave an interview to the Publisher.

“I take particularly strong exception to Mr. Hartshorn’s statement that I ‘invented’ an interview with him,” Boyce stated. “Indeed, I’m absolutely shocked and astounded that Mr. Hartshorn would have the unmitigated gall to deny giving me an interview, when it can quite easily be proven that I called him on his telephone in Mauritius; that he actually returned my call and we spoke for a few minutes, and that he did say in the said interview that he “moved to Mauritius for now because there’s nothing happening in Turks and Caicos now, and you know that”.

Boyce added: “I find myself in full agreement with an increasing number of persons in the Turks and Caicos Islands who are saying that Mr. Hartshorn is wicked and destructive. Now he is proving to be a liar. I’m also now beginning to believe that he is a crazy person and that he’s definitely going out of his head.” 

Boyce said he was deeply disappointed that Hartshorn told such a blatant and unbelievable lie about such a simple matter.

However, the publisher noted that such a practice was typical of the Journal which has habitually published opinions that are pregnant with lies and inaccuracies but which many persons unfortunately believe to be true.

Boyce said it was most regrettable that as a responsible businessman, Hartshorn continued to finance the TCI Journal and write some of its malignant postings and commentaries, thus contributing to the blog being used as a weapon and to promote an agenda that is not necessarily in the best interest of the Turks and Caicos Islands. The Publisher is predicting that The Journal and its activities will very soon come back to haunt him and them in the worst possible way.

“It’s an open secret that Jumpy finances the Journal and that there is an orchestrated effort on the part of his so-called editors and some contributors, who cowardly hide behind initials and false names, to attack, and seek to destroy, people and organisations in the Turks and Caicos Islands. They continue to do so with gay abandon, but little do they know that their chickens will shortly come home to roost,” Boyce added.

Boyce said that as a well-respected businessman, Hartshorn should be ashamed to be associated with, or even be perceived as encouraging, the kind of reckless, toxic and putrid commentaries and writings that frequently emanate from the Journal. He challenged Hartshorn to publicly distance himself from the Journal.

“As long as you don’t agree with The Journal, they lie on you and attack you in the most caustic manner, but my message to Mr. Hartshorn and his cronies is that I’m not a shrinking violet and I don’t back down from fights. They attacked the PNP, then the PDM, the Police, the Attorney General, and now they’ve turned on the Governor and the British Government,” Boyce added.

“Freedom of speech and freedom of expression should be welcome and encouraged in the Turks and Caicos Islands, but those wild boys at the Journal, including Mr. Hartshorn, have been abusing these sacred privileges by acting as if they can intimidate, attack or lie on anyone and by writing whatever one-sided opinions may come to their giddy heads. But very, very soon it will be revealed that some of those associated with the Journal are corrupt to the core.”

Meantime in relation to the past experience which Hartshorn said he had with The SUN, Boyce explained that about two years ago Hartshorn instructed his lawyer Ms. Monique Allen from the law firm Saunders and Co., to sue the newspaper over published comments which former Premier Michael Misick had made about him (Hartshorn).

“Ever since then, and even as recent as during our interview, Mr. Hartshorn has been asking The SUN for a printed apology and I have repeatedly told him and his lawyer not to hold their breath for any apology because none will be forthcoming,” Boyce added.