Aspen Bermuda Ltd has labelled online comments attributed to an employee as “abhorrent”.

However, a spokesman refused to say if Marisa Baron, the sister of Minister of National Security Senator Jeff Baron, is still employed by the company.

In a brief statement on the controversy, Steve Colton, group head of communications at Aspen, said: “Aspen takes matters of this nature extremely seriously. The comments made and sentiments contained in this Facebook post are abhorrent and are completely at odds with the culture and values of Aspen. However, we do not comment on individual staff matters.”

As of yesterday, Ms Baron’s name had been removed from the Aspen Bermuda website and efforts to view her profile page resulted in an error message.

Ms Baron came under fierce scrutiny over a Facebook post on her page, which stated: “I have never in my life wanted to just walk up and smack a stranger. It’s a shame that I am forced to keep my mouth shut, and smile at such ignorant, racist, fearmongering pieces of trash because of who I am.

“Well, not right now ... you black people may think you run this island. Trust me, your stupidity is laughable. Just because you went into the bushes and came out with your inbred children ‘to get the votes’ does not mean you ‘run this country’.

“To make the playing field even, I will now talk to and about black people as they do me, that white girl ... OK ... what year is it? Ignorant f**ks!”

Ms Baron later deleted the post, writing that her account was hacked and apologising for the post, which she described as “vile”. Her account on the social media website was subsequently deleted.

Mr Baron issued a statement on Thursday morning saying he was “outraged” by the post on his sister’s page, adding: “I do not condone this type of divisive, hurtful language. I do not support discriminatory and/or racist comments. It has no place in our discourse, it’s not in my heart to feel this way.”

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