47-Year-Old Man Denies Racial Harrassment
A 47-year-old man appeared in Magistrates Court this morning [Feb 28] with the Court hearing allegations he harassed a Filipino national by leaving human feces on the grounds of her residence.
Carlos Astwood pleaded not guilty to charges alleging racial harassment of a Filipino national who is resident in Bermuda. Astwood also pleaded not guilty to charges of stalking the woman and prowling about her Pembroke residence. The charges relate to actions said to have occurred between 10th November 2012 and 25th February 2013.
Some of the offences were said to involve Astwood allegedly putting human feces in paper packets and then depositing these packets on the grounds of the residence occupied by the woman. Some of the alleged events are said to have been captured on CCTV.
Astwood, unrepresented by legal counsel and not accepting help from the Duty Counsel, told the Senior Magistrate that he had a full time job, was a responsible man and should be free pending trial. The Senior Magistrate ordered that Astwood must be held on remand and set a trial date for 22nd March 2013.
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If guilty, Hope he rots inside..
Needs to learn to leave females alone!
Definitely not xenophobic. Branco should apologize to this outstanding citizen.
As well as to the person who fire bombed the Reef’s staff houses, and to the indvidual who tried to burn down a Buzz (and the non-xenophobic jury found him not guilty, despite a confession and video evidence) and lets not forget to the indvidual who spray pained nasty rhetoric around the island against foreign nationals.
Feel the Love.
Now see here I can agree and you do know history (his story).
Yes brother Duane, we now know his, “His whole story” If caught on CCTV then why waste public funds by holding a case in court? This “bum’ba-cloud” need his tail cut for he is an embarassment!
My wife is Asian, and I can only see one reason why this monster
would do what he’d done…He is a threat to all women also an insult to Bermudians on a whole, because none of “we’lot’ were raised-up to behave like he had… That’s “damn sight nasty”!!!
And to add insult to injury, he had the audacity to say “he’s a responsible person”
To have a fear of a certain group of foreign nationals is not xenophobic having a fear of all foreign nationals is. Its just like if someone has aviophobia it doesn’t mean they prefer a helicopter over a plane or hot air ballon they are afraid of flying period. The fear is genuine when it comes to this group especially when they outnumber any other group of expats on island & outnumber the amount of unemployed locals. It’s not really a fear of the national but a fear of the jobs they take particularly when the job can be filled by any local with a high school diploma. I don’t agree with the way the people you mentioned handle it but the majority of Bermudians are not going this route. Many have reported to immigration whats going on with these foreigners coming into the island as tourist & then getting a work permit or managers of this nationality making sure their own are hired before Bermudians but nothing gets done. Hopefully oba lives up to their promise of fixing this immigration abuse that plp has caused.
You mentioned the jury finding the one convicted of trying to burn down Buzz not guilty but I haven’t seen any report that says that. I do however know that in the last trial of this case it was hung jury not a not guilty verdict. At least there is some mention of the proceedings of this trial. What ever happened with the trial of the foreign workers accused of stealing from BF&M? Was that one just swept under the table?
you sound retarded, one the plp didnt cause this abuse of work permits, if anything they tried to cut back work permits more than the UBP before them. Now look at the recent rhetoric from Fahy, do you see a difference between that and what the PLP said and did. Back to the main point this is xenophobia and racism and it’s funny now how Bermudians are claiming that any Bermudina could do these jobs, but when things were going well a lot of these jobs being done by some Filipinos and Sri Lankans as an example, were considered by most Bermudians to be below them. Amazing how a recession changes some attitudes.
By the way, I’m a Bermudian who is the child of PRC holders, and Bermuda in my opinion has had a backwards immigration policy for a LONG time. How do you justify people living on this island for over 30 years and raising Bermudian children, but they can never get citizenship.
Jail House Lawyer! Funny!
Why does this name sound so familiar?
………..The mother F@#K has a problem called short man syndrome. Bernews next time get a photo of him and place his photo on here. This guy is a disgrace.
Have any of you ever met Carlos??? Just saying…..
@Ottojr… Yes I have.. He’s a looney bin. Actually quite scary. Always looks angry at the world.
He’s a total sh!t-bag! He’s a disgusting little man allegedly full of hate but empty of brains or ambition. Pathetic excuse for a human.
s#!t bag!! hahahaha. he said #h!t bag.
#h!t bag throwing #h!t bags, don’t mind the pun.
Don’t need or wish to meet him. Anybody who allegedly does acts like this needs to be locked up in a cage and the public needs to be protected by people that behave or act like him. If you want to act like an animal then you will be treated as such. There is no excuse for actions like his. Just saying…..
This is sicknening and should be handled very serious,while I may not agree with somethings when it comes to our guest workers,it is a darn disgrace that they get treated like animals or less.
If guilty, and Mr Astwood has a serious mental problem, then he better get help but that type of action is only done by a low life individual and I stand behind my comment.
O.B.A Blogger
I am sick n tired of Bermudians treating foreign workers like $h1t… they are here to better themselves. There are plenty of bermudians who have uprooted and left here to better themselves. If indeed you have problems with guest workers remember who allowed them to work here. Employers submit a request to Immigration and Immigration gives them the okay. If you have the qualifications for certain jobs then apply for them. If you feel that you should have gotten a job that was given to a foreigner than fight for it…..
Your taken the issue way out of context. I in no way condone what this idiot did and never will, but I think its just a case of the victim just happening to be a foreigner. I don’t it was done because she was a foreigner. The article says he was stalking her, so he obviously had an obsession with her.
Exactly! Its not as if he was allegedly shouting slurs at her. If he did do what he is accused of maybe he did it as some kookie way of marking his territory. Maybe he thinks he’s a little pit bull & he thought this was a way of attracting her attention.
I’m sick and tired of people like you who label all Bermudians the same. They have many words for people like you who do that.
I agree, this is a disgrace and we should all be embarrassed and apologetic at the ASSTWOODS alleged behavior.
“we should all be embarrassed and apologetic”
Why? We were not the ones who are alleged to have done these offenses. No one should be remorseful but him if he is found to be guilty.
Because he (ASTWOOD)is Bermudian and whether we like it or not , his alleged actions as a Bermudian reflect badly on all of us. As a Bermudian , I am embarrassed that another fellow Bermudian would allegedly do such a thing. I would like to apologize to the victim on behalf of the Bermudians that do not condone this type of behavior, and would like to see it stopped.
If you don’t agree, that is okay. You have that right. I’m not trying to argue.
Some people are just plain disgusting.
He needs to be Institutionalised before something really bad happens.
1. He is very sick indeed.
2. He is xenophobic.
If guilty
3, he is xenophobic and self loathing.
4, needs to get a life.
There are far too many of these incidents! Just the other day, some Filipinos bikes were set alight and the home they were asleep in also caught fire! They could have burned to death in their beds! I understand that the fire was an escalation from having feces smeared on their bikes, too.
I have also been made aware that there have been at least 6 previous instances of the cars and/or bikes of Filipinos being burned.
For those who object to the word “xenophobic” being applied to Bermudians, I’d like to know what you would call this kind of behaviour!
I was at Ice Queen the other night and a Bermudian male placed an order and turned around to talk to his mate. When he was done he turned back around to the counter and tried to place additional orders with another one of the clerks (not the one who took the original order). When he told the client that he wasn’t the one who took his order his reply was, “Well all you Packi fu&$ers look alike to me!” I wonder what his (client)reaction would have been if someone said that about him. I could only imagine.
If true, that is disgusting behaviour by a Bermudian. Imagine if the server would have said “well, you blacks all look alike to me too”. I think that would not have ended well.
Exactly! So why is it ok that it is done to a guest worker? What if these things mentioned were done to Bermudians? (Even if they were done by other Bermudians, not even done by guest workers.) People would go crazy!
These things are done to Bermudians. I had an American teacher in school who would mock the way some of the Bermudians with strong accents would speak. No one would even dare mock the teachers strong New York accent or off to the principals office you’d go to get the strap. Even in many post here & other sites there are loads of prejudice comments about bermudians. The difference is Bermudians have become conditioned to the many years of prejudice so many just laugh it off. Do you think its OK for expats like the proctologist dream Pitgen who has never commented on anything here but one post to defend his nationals to type, “your people are lazy and good for nothing. Why do you think employers are getting expats instead of Bermudians?” Is that OK but its only disgusting when a Bermudian says something?
@ Pitgen, yes I read your post just now on the other article as I know you’ll read this one as it pertains to one of your nationals. The difference is now I’ve also read of not one but three of your nationals were actually guilty of stealing. Even if it would be a fallacy for me to say all of your nationals are lazy and good for nothing I can prove without a shadow of doubt three are.
Where do you read black male in the sentence ? That sounds like a very regular comment made by many Brits all over England and the colony’s .
We don’t live in Britain and the PLP pushed all the Bobbies out and replaced them with people that “look like us”.
Process of elimination I guess. I have witnessed the same type of ignorant behavior at many Front Street restaurants after a few of those “that look like us” have a few drinks.
If you children hear hate, they repeat hate. They repeat what they learn. We pretend that hate is only something that is possible by those that are melatonin deficient and it is convenient for some of us to believe that some of us are immune to it because of the skin we were born in.
Not saying this person was black or white, but until we stop condoning this behavior, it will never stop.
Its not only WRONG or RACIST when it happens to people that look like “us”. It is just WRONG!
You call it process of elimination I call it racism. Fighting racism with racism. You all are something else.
I said process of elimination – I guess. It was a guess not a confirmation. And to clarify – I wasn’t fighting anything? Did you read my entire post – or did you stop reading and get defensive when you were confronted with something that I said that makes many uncomfortable?
M.P., I hope you’re not suggesting that all Brits would make that kind of comment?
That would as silly as suggesting that all Bermudians are xenophobic, right?
I’m sure it’s ‘different’ when you say it though.
M.D ..Last time I checked , many did not and certainly does not mean all , but as usual you’re right in your own silly mind .
Why you assuming the person who made the comment was black?
Mr. Happy = bigoted a*s*s
Bigoted? Far from it. How did the original poster know the person who made the comment was “Bermudian”? Process of elimination leads to him being a black male.
That guy probably got a nice juicy snot rocket in his fries.
If its xenophobic why isn’t this happening to any other foreign nationals? I’m not condoning this behavior as there are better & more legal ways of dealing with the problem. It would be better if a group was formed that could document the reasons why these feelings of anger are felt towards these nationals above all others in Bermuda. Maybe in the documentation some legitimate reasons for the feelings would come forth & there would be a case to bring to a government minister.
At the moment there are over 30 countries that the Filipino government has banned its workers from working in because they feel they are being mistreated in them but their workers still seek employment in the countries. One of the places is dubai & the complaint from the Filipino government is that the hotels their do not want the workers cooking fish in their staff kitchen because the guest are complaining about the smell. They consider the hotel managers racist because they wont let them cook fish. So what is the hotel manager to do inconvenience their guest? The words racist & xenophobic are used to loosely & more investigation needs to be done in the way people act towards others before judging.
Dude , why do you have such a raging hard-on for the oppressed people of the Philippines ?
Why do you have a boner for all things PLP? Have you read your posts?
The oppressed people from the Philippines stay in the Philippines because they are oppressed. The only people we have here as refugees are the uighurs. The ones who come here to work are not poverty stricken if they were how would they afford to get here. Their government helps the middle class & wealthy citizens of their country get to other countries to work so they can send money back. The Philippines major industry is worker export. They have millions of workers all over the globe. The oppressed ones stay there working in the sweatshops & as prostitutes in Angeles City, Olongapo, Subic Bay & Pasay City.
Social Studies is over now sit in the corner & leave yourself alone & stop thinking those phallic thoughts.
Tommy Chong put down the friggin bong man . Was it a Filipino woman who damaged your manhood , you know messed with your fragile ego ?
@ Tommy – I don’t know what you were smoking in your Social Studies class. Your info on the Philippines are mostly inaccurate, so you have no right spitting them out like that. I have seen a lot of envy coming mostly from Black Bermudians towards these Filipinos. Mind you, they are the one of the most gentle and friendly people I’ve known. It’s true, they are all over the world and are welcomed by many countries as workers, because they are hard workers and flexible people, learning to fit in that country’s culture very well. Nonetheless, it is evident that the accused has a criminal mind and should be locked up for his hate crimes. The guy was charged for arson in the case of Buzz Restaurant; however, the jury could not decide (despite all the evidence) and he was then released. With the weak judicial system here, I won’t be surprised if he was let go again to perpetrate another such crime.
Tommy, he is accused of harrassing only people who are not Bermudian, and only of one race. You can debate the finer points of what you think xenophobia and racist means. But allegedly putting bags of s!!t outside someone’s residence because they are not Bermudian is inexcusable and illegal, and should be addressed in the court.
By the way, the person who embezzled money? In prison. I guess that escaped your selective attention.
Thanks, I was just thinking, funny how some people skip past some verdicts.
He is accused of harassing ONE person who is not Bermudian not people. Furthermore Filipino is not a race its a nationality & the people of that nationality are of mixed race as most of us in this world are me included.
If you had read my comment you would have read that I’m not condoning the nasty behavior he is accused of or the others Pastor Syl mentioned & I realize what was done was illegal. My point was to Pastor Syl’s comment underlining that people are taking notice of this nationality taking jobs from Bermudians & some are acting out because of it. It’s not only the mentally & socially dysfunctional ones that are taking notice but of curse they are the ones who stick out through their actions. Others who notice have to keep quiet or be accused of xenophobia or racism even if its only one nationality they are pointing out & they have solid reasons for pointing them out.
By the way maybe it escaped my attention that one person got charged with insurance fraud because it should have been three. Now I’ve found it after a few searches since the Bermuda media didn’t cover it that well. $75,000 stolen by three but only one does time isn’t that just typical.
Maybe you need to google the person involved Tommy. You seem uninforned.
I think you’re missing a big part of the story Tommy.
@ Tommy Chong: Although the Filipinos appear to be the primary targets at this time, Bermudians have been known to express strong negative feelings about the British and the Canadians, even the Italians and Germans. Skin color and employment issues seem jumbled together as the root cause of the negativity, except for the British police officers – for fairly obvious reasons.
Actually, it is something I have seen in the various countries I have visited/resided in. As long as there are only two or three of a particular nationality or skin tone, everything is fine. As soon as the numbers grow and the native way of life appears to be threatened, said natives display “xenophobic” tendencies. It seems to be human nature.
This guy is a sicko and a criminal. He is dangerous. Of course, if found guilty, Mr Warner will probably give him a $50 fine and a friendly pat on the head.
Why bother taking him to court, he will get off or receive a suspended sentence. So really, why bother.
Its time for the courts to admit some of our people are beyond help. Carlos doesn’t need more help, he’s been give several chances over many years. He simply needs to be given a bed and meals at the MAWI permanently. Don’t even allow him leave the premises. I won’t mind my tax dollars being put to this use.
I agree, if guilty, lock him up, give him a bed to sleep in and give him 3 square meals of shat!
Just as a note, with court cases that are still underway comments have to follow certain guidelines. Basically they have to pertain to this case only – nothing else – and can’t assume guilt. If comments are outside of those guidelines, we have to delete them. Sorry!
No need to say sorry,you are within your rights and are following the laws of the land,so most would understand your position and we do appreciate the fact that our voices is being heard.
Bernews you do an excellent job of keeping the public informed and giving credible information and not half of a story,also we find that if all the information to a story or situation is not forth coming,you do bring it to us as soon as you recieve it.
So no worry’s and no sorry’s keep up the good work,I am getting a little to on with age to be sitting up in public meetings and enjoy blasting off from the mouth via this media and dont mind if you have to yank my chain when needed,maybe Dr. Browns former head of security can learn from that as she sits at the union.
As disgusting as the story is the headline is really way out there. The man is charged with stalking and prowling, not racial harrassment!!!!Racial harrassment would mean that he was discriminating against her and controlling her because of her colour; which is simply not the case.. The headline is very misleading and the story does not suggest any racial harrassment or any xenophobia, as some of the comments above suggest.How is leaving feces racial? just because she is a filipino doesn’t make it racial unless he actually implied that! The charges don’t reflect racism either. How is leaving feces projecting a superior attitude? lets await the facts! Seems like the headlint has already condemned
Thanks for your comment, but you appear to have misread the story.
The headline states “Man Denies Racial Harrassment” because he was charged with, and subsequently denied, a charge of racial harassment.
Can be confusing we know…the “racial harassment” was one of the charges listed in court and as it was a charge we had not heard before, so we took the initiative of checking with the prosecution after the case ended, and they confirmed it.
so “lilbitmoretogo,” do you feel stupid now????? How about you spend a “lilbitmore” TIME reading the ARTICLE and less time trolling the comments section. You CLEARLY DID NOT read the article. Trolls like you are so annoying. Get a job.
Here’s a hint. Google. Use it. Find the main keywords in the article and google.
We need a mental rehab centre in Bermuda. There are far too many persons on the street with mental disorders. He is certainly one of them. Yes, I do know him. So truth be told this isn’t the first time he has been before the courts for unbecoming behaviour. Although its been a while, it seems he isn’t getting the care that he needs.
OBA, I know we are broke but there is got to be a way to make this come to fruition. Seriously, prison does not help persons with mental issues.
@Lyfe In Bermy: I agree we are in bad need of an mental institute like that for felons, its way over do. He needs help. Trust me I know.
Live and let live! Get a life
Wake up people we all have relatives from a different country. Know your Heritage! Respect yourselves and others. We only have one life to live!
I agree, there isn’t on person in Bermuda that isn’t connected to another race by more that one generation.
Yeah no kidding. How can people call others “foreigners”, when EVERY SINGLE PERSON on this lovely island is a foreigner? HINT: There were no people here in the early 1600s…they all came from “foreign” lands.
“It’s not really a fear of the national but a fear of the jobs they take particularly when the job can be filled by any local with a high school diploma. “…. IF HE WANTS THE JOB! Most blue collar Bermudians don’t want those “low class” kind of jobs, many would prefer to remain unemployed or go on Social Assistance. Such is life in Bermuda. And in many other Western countries, I might add….
“Most blue collar Bermudians don’t want those “low class” kind of jobs”
If this were so why is it that Bermudians are the only ones who take the street sweeper & trash collector jobs? Its not that foreigners are not allowed to work government jobs as there are ones that do just not those types of jobs. Unless you think that riding behind a truck full of stinky trash is some sort of glamorous job? Besides working as a manager at a store is not a low class job but some employers have foreigners doing this who have no prior experience or any managerial degree. There are even foreigners working as accountants of small businesses who never had an accountants degree. Some foreign accountants here even have jobs in big accounting firms but have a degree that is equal or lower than the degree given at Bermuda College & learn most of their skills here when sent to be certified paid in full by the company. Many locals who graduate from the accountants course at the college here cant find a job that will hire them. There are some Bermudians who take advantage of Social Assistance but many rather not & go around passing out their resume just to have it trashed & they never get an interview call.
This is baloney! Prove everything you’ve said about these foreign accountants, Tommy!
I am so embarrassed as a Bermudian!
This guy is a creep and does not speak or act for the majority. If guilty, Lock his ass up!
If found guilty and has Judge Warner… he will only get a slap on the wrist…
Disgusting.
I wonder if they DNA tested the feces to see if it was his? I understand that it is possible to extract DNA for feces.