i was first contacted by peter dean rickards (aka afflicted yard) on 1st july 2003 when i was u.k. editor for trace magazine. the email read:
hi there..my name is peter dean rickards..im a photographer based in kingston, jamaica..just saw your new issue and felt inspired to drop you guys a line..AGAIN.
my work has appeared in THE FADER, SOURCE, XLR8R, MURDER DOG, VIBe and a bunch of others..have a look at my portfolio here:
i would love to do some work for your mag one of these days..its the hottest ish out there right now...
bless..peter
p.rickards
so after checking his portfolio, reading his persuasive emails and talking
on the phone i was interested to help get his work on the pages of trace and
ammo. while visiting family in antigua
a month
later
i
took my
first trip to jamaica to meet with him. as part of the trip rickards suggested
we meet with sizzla to discuss the possibilities of an article at some future
date.
little did i know that by the end of our relationship rickards would be threatening to rape my 3 year old daughter and her mother. see television documentary here
at the time i also hadn't heard the story
where rickards, on an assignment for the source magazine, allegedly boasted
about
threatening to "kick the baby out of the belly" of the magazines
pregnant news editor, ann-marie nicholson (click
here- he has since removed this boast from his site)
the meeting with sizzla was brief, inspiring, with an invitation to return.
a short article appeared on ammo a month later (sept 03 click
here)
featuring rickards picture's and links to his site which he reciprocated.
just last month some of rickards non-commissioned (i.e. images that he offered
free to promote himself) imagery made the pages of trace in another article
i had written. this time he featured the trace story on his site promoting
himself
and the magazine (click
here).
but how things change.
earlier this week rickards published this article (click
here)
entitled 'white lies' on his website which if not for the blatant racism and
attacks on both my wife and 3 year old daughter might have been funny. if you're
into the humour of say, bernard
manning, that is. he then followed up with the oh so funny 'whitey digital'
(he also removed this
but we have a copy)
and then the threatening 'silent killer' (click
here - ditto) adding a txt message saying "you got one week ****hole!
watch how it go!" for good measure.
so why has it taken 9 months since the publication of the ammo story for rickards to decide that i am a white liberal hippy arsehole?
strangely posted before the white lies webpage was published
later in 2003 the chance arrived for me to live and work in jamaica which given my first experience i jumped at. having remained in constant contact with rickards since my trip we both looked forward to the opportunity to work together even though i would be located on the other side of the island.
arriving in jamaica, all was good for several months with a number of photographic
projects going to rickards such as those for london's wall of sound record
label and a german recording artist. all good things come to an end and, as
many
wiser people on the island had expected, rickards and i fell out. after the
many things that i had helped rickards with, like finding him work (when he
was begging for it) and fixing his virus infested computers it was the fact
that i wouldn't lend him a video projector after the umpteenth time that made
him
spit out
the dummy
like
the
spoilt child
that
he so clearly is.
the gravy train had come to a rest and rickards has been venting his spleen to
anyone that cares to listen ever since, which from the half dozen click-thru's
from his story to this site can't be many. but thanks for the clicks anyway.
after bombarding my cell phone with abusive txt messages to such an extent
that i had to have him blocked my stalker decides to hang himself with his
own rope. although not before phoning my wife to call her an 'african nigger
bitch' and threats about 'whitey having to watch his back'.
there were clues that this would inevitably happen as it does with the
many that peter rickards takes money or help from. his constantly bitter
jokes
and doctored photo's about the
puma product manager, the wall of sound label boss, uk graf artist's, the
german reggae artist and the jamaican artists whom he makes a living from,in
fact anyone who's more talented or got further in life than him, which when
you think about it is a pretty big list. it just
got tedious after a while.
perhaps
it was just his insatiable drug habit that had gotten the better of him
and made him a bit bi-polar as certain powders do. on more
than
one
occassion
he
was busted
for possession of class
a and b substances. once he even pleaded with me
from a police cell in negril for me to drive all the way from ocho rios
to bail
him out after he'd been picked up with class a's because he thought a "white
face" would help him out!
naturally, like most addicts, he's a great person to know
when he wants something from you!
and of course, rickards isn't happy to simply lampoon me with the fantasy
of fiction on his website (can he name his sources?), along with a continual
stream of love letters, he has to take a pop at my wife
and child while revealing his insecurity over skin colour (change the
word 'white' to
'black' and
there would be uproar), his envy of anyone who is making a go of things
and his horror of mixed race marriages and on and on and on.
following rickards witnessed threats to rape my wife and 3 year old daughter
and cut off my head the matter was reported to the jamaican authorities
who arrested rickards and yet upon his release the threats continue with
rickards publishing his fabricated version of events on his web site (click
here - again he has removed this material from his site but we have copies).
due to legal reasons we are unable to publish further material which will
be available at a future time but is held by jamaican, british and now
american legal counsel.
even though rickards is officially a canadian he's going to have a little
trouble next time he wants to visit new york or london.
so to the magazine writers, photo editors, product managers, record
label bosses and artists who receive a similar "bless
king" email from rickards - buyer beware.
