Soclialite Jasmine Hartin’s wealthy ex Andrew Ashcroft accuses her of being a drunk and drug addict

The socialite accused of ‘accidentally’ shooting dead a top Belizean police officer faces a bitter custody battle over her two young children after her wealthy ex branded her a drunk and a drug addict in scathing court papers, DailyMail.com can reveal.

Andrew Ashcroft, the son of influential British billionaire Lord Michael Ashcroft, claims that Jasmine Hartin is unfit to care for twins Charlie and Ellie, four, because of her ‘immoral habits’ and her involvement in the accidental shooting death of Superintendent Henry Jemmott.

‘The mother of the children hardly spends any time with the children. She is frequently more than not leaving the children in the care of others,’ Ashcroft, 43, claims in a court summons obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com.

‘Her main occupation is attending and socializing and she is addicted to non-prescribed and illegal drugs and is a habitual drunkard.

‘The mother of the children is also presently charged with serious offences; causing death of a police officer by negligence, as well as assault of a person, while out on bail.’

Canadian national Hartin, 32, rejected the allegations today and said Ashcroft had blocked her from seeing her children without any court order or lawful authorization since June 11.

She said the summons was filed one day after she complained to Belizean and Canadian authorities that her ex-partner of seven years had allegedly taken their children out of Belize without her permission.

‘When Andrew obviously caught wind that I was doing this, all of a sudden I get served with a custody paper and it’s all bogus what he’s accusing me of,’ she told DailyMail.com.

‘He says that I’m never around the kids but I’ve been trying to be around the kids and I have video evidence showing that he’s been refusing me access to them.’

Hartin provided a copy of a recent medical report to DailyMail.com to prove that she was not on drugs.

The examination, carried on July 5, states that she tested negative for a variety of illegal substances, including cocaine, ecstasy, meth and marijuana.

‘As soon as I take one step to get my kids back he attacks me and he’s coming out with false allegations,’ she said, explaining that the notoriety around Jemmott’s death was making it hard for her to find a family lawyer willing to represent her.

‘I’m playing an unfair game. They are able to do whatever they want while I’m tied up in red tape,’ she added.

Prior to the shooting of Jemmott, 32, she and Ashcroft enjoyed a jet-set lifestyle operating a string of luxurious resorts in Ambergris Caye, a tropical island haven for rich ex-pats off the eastern coast of Belize.

That came to a shocking halt in the early hours of May 28 when Jemmott, a father-of-five tipped as a future leader of his country’s police force, was struck behind his right ear by a 9mm round from his own Glock 17 service pistol.

According to a criminal complaint he had been ‘socializing’ and drinking alone with Hartin on a secluded hotel pier one block from the swank Alaia Belize hotel, which she operated with Ashcroft.

A security guard heard a ‘loud bang’ at 12:45am and police arrived to find Hartin ‘covered in red substance as that of blood’ and Jemmott floating dead on his back 30ft from the shore.

An expended shell casing was still lodged inside the gun which was found on the Mata Rocks hotel pier along with a magazine, live bullets and a pool of blood.

After spending the weekend behind bars, Hartin gave a statement saying the off-duty officer was showing her how to handle his firearm as the pair drank and hung out.

In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, she later gave her first public account of the shooting saying the gun went off unexpectedly in her hands as she tried to re-insert a clip and hand it back.

‘Henry was my friend. It was an accident, I didn’t flee the scene. The first thing I did was call the police myself,’ she said.

Hartin also revealed that the reason she was practicing with the gun was because an unnamed man had tried to rape her at a party six days earlier.

She was charged with manslaughter by negligence after prosecutors opted against murder or full-fledged manslaughter on the strength of her witness statement insisting it was an accident.

The offence carries a maximum prison sentence of nine months or a fine of around 10,000 Belizean dollars ($5,000 in US money).

Since then Hartin has been in and of prison as she struggles to find the legal funds to mount both a criminal defense and now a bitter custody battle for her kids.

Her relationship with Ashcroft came to an unseemly end after he allegedly barred her from accessing their apartment and stopped her from seeing Charlie and Ellie after her release on bail.

Hartin filmed herself chasing Ashcroft through the Alaia’s restaurant to demand answers, a clash that earned her an additional assault charge when a manager later accused her of ‘attempting’ to push her in the melee.

Ashcroft has not commented on the incident but in a leaked statement to police he said he was worried she was trying to seize the children ‘by force’.

‘At no time have I told Jasmine that she cannot see her children. I have explained to Jasmine that we have to agree on dates, time and a place convenient to all of us where she can see the children,’ the statement read.

The two will now meet again in front of magistrates on July 20th to hear Ashcroft’s claim for legal custody.

Hartin will appear before the country’s Supreme Court next month to enter a plea over Jemmott’s killing where the case will likely include a close examination of her competency with firearms.

Hartin has been pictured with pistols and rifles on social media including a video of her firing at a watermelon with a shotgun, scoring a direct hit from around 20 yards away.

It was also reported this week that she was involved in another accidental shooting incident in May 2020 that took place at an apartment in the Grand Colony, another Ashcroft-owned resort where she lived with Andrew prior to Jemmott’s death.

Ray Thompson, a maintenance worker, told News 5 Belize that Hartin was sitting with a security guard and each of them were cleaning a firearm when a shot suddenly rang out.

Thompson recalled Hartin telling the guard: ‘I am sorry, it was an accident’. However he said he could not be sure that it was her gun that went off.

 Thompson said nobody was hurt and nothing more was said about the alleged accidental discharge.