National Security adviser to the Prime Minister, Gary Griffith says he never threatened Opposition MP Donna Cox during last Friday's no-confidence motion debate in Parliament. House Speaker Wade Mark ruled that a prima facie case was made against Griffith after Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley and Diego Martin North-East MP Colm Imbert told legislators of Griffith's threat.
Griffith is to be investigated by the Committee of Privileges. In a statement issued yesterday, Griffith said the verbal abuse claim was "totally false and misleading." He said CCTV in the building would provide the evidence to clear his name. During Cox's presentation she spoke of an individual who was seen driving a vehicle with an MP sticker on it.
Griffith gave the sequence of events in his statement yesterday:
• At approximately 2.30 am (Saturday during the sitting) I was walking along the corridor from Level 2 to proceed to Level 3, I told both Ms Cox and MP Amery Browne "good morning."
• Ms Cox walked over to the elevator and the camera will show me smiling and talking to Mr Browne, who was outside the elevator.
Griffith said after his conversation with Browne, "I started walking up the stairs to Level 3, when Ms Cox cursed me three times, before the elevator door closed on her." He said the CCTV "would verify that I never confronted her and was speaking one-on-one to Mr Browne personally." Griffith said a media reporter "was behind us when this took place."
Griffith said when he arrived on Level 3 and was heading towards the dining room "she (Cox) came out of the elevator and continued her verbal assault on me." Griffith said he "kept smiling and telling her that there was no need to be cursing and getting on like that, which only caused her to continue cursing and confronting me closer." He said he walked away but she followed him.
"There was another CCTV camera along the corridor which would confirm this," Griffith added. A source close to Cox said Griffith told her she was "ugly and a low class woman." Griffith said while they were in the dining room, Cox "restarted her antics, acting like a raging bull totally out of control as she started screaming and shouting as to what I am doing here, and asking for the police."
Griffith said: "During this period, I again said nothing and walked away." Griffith said after Cox spoke about him driving his wife's car with a MP sticker on it, he asked Browne if he knew that "a certain person was seen constantly driving a vehicle with a sticker that had MP, that belonged to a certain Junior Minister in the last administration."
Griffith said: "That is what I asked Dr Amery Browne and he was confused because he said he did not know, and this was when Ms Cox started cursing me while she was in the elevator before the door closed." Griffith said the incident raises a serious question about the abuse of Parliamentary privileges by MPs as they can say what they want and citizens have "little avenue for redress." He said protection should not only be given to MPs but "for all citizens whose names are being slandered."