Hours before he was due to appear before the Medical Board of Trinidad and Tobago for a conduct assessment, Dr. Avinash Sawh has issued a public apology for grossly racist and derogatory statements he made in an audio tape which was leaked last week.

“I have brought shame and embarrassment on my family, employers, community and profession. I now understand fully the damaging effect these statements can have on our multicultural society,” Dr. Sawh said in a virtual press conference on Wednesday morning, held at his attorney, Martin George’s office in Port of Spain. 

Last Thursday, two audio clips of Sawh spread like wildfire online, in which he could be heard hurling insensitivities about Afro-Trinbagonians and the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service. 

He was also heard instructing an employee to only hire East Indian nurses, saying:  “A lot of patients racial so we prefer an Indian nurse, a lot of people…don’t want black nurses dealing with them…just tell all them applicants send a photo ID.”

He later said of Afro-Trinbagonians: “They want to kill and beat up people and rob people business and things…and bawling black lives matter. They does get on like f***ing monkey.”

But on Wednesday, he appeared to have a change of heart.

“I am manning up and accepting full responsibility for the hurt I have caused in these varying sectors. Such statements, upon mature reflection, have no place in a cosmopolitan society,” the doctor said. 

He also pledged to make contributions to the  I Support Our Service (ISOS) campaign of the Trinidad and Tobago police Service, claiming to hold law enforcement in “high esteem” even as he referred to them as “dumb n*****s” in the recording.

On the heels of the audio recording’s release last week, the Trinidad and Tobago Medical Association, described the incident as “unfortunate” and condemned Dr. Sawh’s statements.