The longtime partner of Jasmine Hartin, the socialite charged with killing a top cop in Belize, has reportedly been granted interim custody of the couple’s two children.
A judge in the Caribbean country granted Andrew Ashcroft, 43, son of billionaire Lord Michael Ashcroft, the temporary custody on Wednesday, when the couple faced each other in family court for the first time, according to Belize station LoveFM.
Ashcroft declined to address the media before dashing off in his car, but his attorney Roberta Usher told reporters that he had been granted the custody of 4-year-old twins Charlie and Elle.
“That’s interim custody and I will speak to you after the matter is finished,” Usher said.
Meanwhile, Hartin, 32, told reporters: “That was a very, in my opinion, a very unfair outcome but I don’t think I can speak right now.”
Her attorney Wendy Auxillou said her client “intends to act very maturely and not discuss the custody issues until there’s a resolution at some point,” adding that “this is a matter that involves children and because it involves children, we have to take every care not to make spurious comments and allegations.”
Hartin claims she shot Superintendent Henry Jemmott accidentally while handing him his pistol while drinking together on a pier.
The socialite, who is charged with manslaughter by negligence, had been hauled back to jail after filming herself angrily confronting Andrew and accusing him of blocking her from seeing their kids. She was later bailed out from the lockup.
In an application made this month for custody of the kids, Ashcroft accused Hartin of being “a habitual drunkard” and drug addict whose “main occupation” was socializing, according to the Times of London.
She denied the claims and alleged that Ashcroft had been “struggling with alcoholism for years” and that she could prove that in court, the news outlet reported.
