CPR Cayman apologies for “regrettable incident”

(CMR) CPR Cayman has issued a statement publicly apologizing to His Excellency Governor Martyn Roper, OBE and his wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Roper for a “regrettable incident.” The apology was received today after one of its executive members, Mario Rankin, shared a scathing fake news voice note last weekend.

The apology comes almost one week after the voice note went viral last week Saturday, April 4th. The apology letter stated:

“Unfortunately, our organization was recently associated with an incident which was highly offensive to the Governor and Mrs. Roper. We are deeply sorry for the pain that was most certainly caused. It was no only undeserved, but completely unacceptable.”

It further went on to say that Governor Roper was instrumental in “maintaining balanced communication between CPR Cayman and the Cabinet” during the people's initiated referendum process on the cruise berthing facility. He met with the organization on several occasions and accepted the petition signatures.

Despite apologizing for “the incident” there was no mention of Rankin in the letter and whether or not he remains an active member of the CPR executive. Rankin, was arrested last week appeared on Straight Talk with Ruthanna Young where he claims he was entitled to his opinion and free speech. Initially, he indicated that the voice note was a joke and was shared in a “private CPR group” where members were used to receiving his jokes.

Rankin is an integral part of CPR Cayman and has met with the governor on several occasions with other group representatives.

He has not issued a public apology to the governor outside of comments made on the show.

He was also on a public witch-hunt to find the person he claims breached his trust and shared the voice note outside of the group causing it to quickly go viral via WhatsApp. Rankin claims that person should be arrested instead of him because they published it. However, a legal precedent has already stated that WhatsApp communication even with one person is sufficient to constitute “publication”. There is no indication if Rankin has been successful in identifying which of his group members shared the voice note.

The police have sent the investigation file to the Director of Public Prosecution's Office for a ruling.