ON a bleak Wednesday morning, May 4, 1983, teenager Dianne Smith was making her way to school along the Old Stony Hill Road in St Andrew when she was snatched, mercilessly ravaged, and her lifeless body dumped in a gully.

Had Dr Dayton Campbell taken the time to research the baseless rumour that the youthful Daryl Vaz had murdered the Immaculate High School student, he might not have repeated it publicly, leading to his humble pie-eating apology last week.

On Wednesday, Campbell, the People’s National Party (PNP) general secretary, settled a lawsuit brought against him by Vaz in which the now energy minister said he had been defamed by Campbell in the throes of a speech at a PNP meeting in Clarendon on July 27, 2023.