Miss Cayman Islands Universe Tiffany Conolly has been found guilty of assaulting her ex-boyfriend and his father, damaging both men’s vehicles, as well as assaulting police.
Conolly was found guilty of all the charges against her, which consisted of two counts of assault, two counts of damage to property, two counts of assaulting police and one count of disorderly conduct.
“The evidence against you was overwhelming,” said Magistrate Philippa McFarlane as she delivered a verbal judgement against Conolly on Thursday, 9 Feb.
The first charges arose from an altercation that began when Conolly visited her estranged partner’s house shortly after 10pm on 15 Oct. 2021.
The main victim in the incident told the court Conolly acted in a “belligerent and aggressive manner” towards him and his son during a two-minute assault which he claimed was unprovoked.
Although Conolly accepted assaulting both men, she gave a different version of events, and claimed that she was “setup, manipulated, and acting in self-defence”.
“I accepted his evidence, it could not have been any clearer,” McFarlane told Conolly. “I did not find you to be a credible witness and by virtue of me accepting [the main witness’] evidence, I must reject yours.”
The charges of assaulting police stemmed from incidents that took place while in custody at the Cayman Islands Detention Centre – which was partially captured on CCTV.
“I watched the video and what I saw was a young person who was combative, belligerent and violent at times,” said McFarlane.
Conolly was released on bail, pending a 20 April sentencing.
When releasing her, McFarlane warned Conolly that these guilty verdicts now put her in breach of an 18-month suspended sentence imposed by the Summary Court for charges of a similar nature against different complainants.
“By breaching the suspended sentence, it now means you are going to have to be resentenced,” said the judge. “Previously no conviction was recorded; however, this breach means a conviction… will be recorded.”
Miss Cayman Islands Universe
Following Conolly’s convictions, the Miss Cayman Islands Universe’s Facebook page replaced its main picture with that of the first runner-up, Chloe Powery-Doxey, who represented the Cayman Islands at the Miss Universe pageant in January.
However, later in the day, Conolly’s image was restored.
The Compass reached out to the Miss Cayman Islands Universe committee seeking a comment on the verdicts.
In a statement released on Thursday afternoon, the committee, along with the tourism ministry, the pageant franchise holder, stated they were aware of the ruling “in the criminal case pertaining to our reigning Miss Cayman Universe, Miss Tiffany Connolly”.
“The Committee along with the Franchisee in consultation with the Miss Universe Organisation, will explore the available options, pursuant to, inter alia, the Contract between Miss Connolly, the Committee and the Franchisee,” the statement reads.
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