Former British High Commissioner John Yapp left Belize in shame and scandal in June and 2008, when a complaint was made about his conduct - it alleged that he had touched the backside of a female senior counsel at a cocktail. The former Deputy High Commissioner David Spires reported this to the British Foreign Office - and said the complaint came from former foreign Minister Eamon Courtenay. Courtney denied making any such complaint to Spires. A fact finding mission sent by the British Government said that Courtney had made the complaint in confidence - and it led to disciplinary action against Yapp - who eventually lost his job - and ran into health difficulties.
In short, the entire ordeal ruined Yapp personally and professionally - so much so that even after being cleared of any wrongdoing whatsoever by the two highest British courts - he still had lost his career. Now he's back in Belize visiting old friends and looking for closure. He told Jules Vasquez as much on Friday:...
John Yapp, Former British High Commissioner to Belize
"You know I feel genuinely robbed of the great time that I felt confident of having here, both in professional and personal terms, but it was not to be. The disappointments I think which I still suffer from some of the effect, including you know the price I had to pay in terms of my health, are things which are essentially now focused in the UK rather than in Belize. But I wanted to come here perhaps one last time to say goodbye to, you know, many of my friends and, you know, incredibly loyal supporters who have sustained me over the last eight years."
"Closure is indeed incredibly important, and ah you know the fact that I was left suspended in the air for so long with nobody listening to anything I had to say was very stressful. I still suffer from depression. I'm still on medication for it - you know the whole question of mental health is something that has open up to me I don't appreciate how it can happened to people. But it did and the courts both found that it was a direct result of what was done to me here."
"I've also to confirm the rumors. I've also had a heart bypass and I've overcome cancer in the time I've been away. I can't claim that these are direct consequences of what happened to me. But certainly what happened to me did not help."
"I want to write a book about the whole experience. Because I think there is a real story that had to be told about the ways of the world."
Jules Vasquez
"If there was anything you could re-do and re-visit. Would you be as socially engaging and engaged as you were in the past?"
John Yapp, Former British High Commissioner to Belize
"Oh yes, I mean you know, that's me, and I would definitely be. I would perhaps be a little more selective about the company that I kept. I might even have got a couple to move on."
Jules Vasquez
"Do you think that some people should have lost a few years of sleep over how unjustly you were dragged across the courts and your name and good reputation destroyed?"
John Yapp, Former British High Commissioner to Belize
"Yes I do. I do think and I hope people lost a few nights sleep over what they did."
Yapp returned to the UK today.
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