BATTEYMAN INA COURTHOUSE

Three homos*xual male prostitutes, two of whom claimed they were selling oral s*x to a male client when he was robbed of his money and valuables in New Kingston caused quite a commotion at the Kingston, and St Andrew Parish Court last week after they were remanded.

The three accused reportedly attacked police on Friday while they were being led to the holding area and had cops scampering after they broke free. However, they were caught and placed inside the cell.

This was just after two of the men were scolded by Parish Judge Chester Crooks for shouting at a police corporal who they said was squeezing their handcuffs too tightly.

However, Judge Crooks, after hearing that they had attacked the police, gave instruction from them to be charged and taken to court next Tuesday.

Earlier the trio, who appeared on robbery with aggravation charges, pleaded guilty with explanation, They denied robbing the man of $10,000, his Blu cellular phone, and bag with clothing.

The court heard that on the night in question the complainant, who sells clothes, went to meet a lady in New Kingston to sell her some lighters. Sometime after, around 3:00 am, he was riding his bicycle on Trafalgar Road when he was reportedly pounced upon by a group of men, some dressed as women. Five of them, including one who had a knife, held him. He fell from his bicycle and was robbed of his goods by the men who fled.

The complainant reportedly chased them on his bicycle, crying and begging for the return of his goods. Eventually, a man told him where he could find the men, and he went to the police and reported the matter.

The police went to the location, held the men with the complainant’s phone, and took them into custody.

But Friday when they appeared in court they had a totally different story from the complainant’s.

The first accused told the court that he was on the road dressed in his female attire when he was approached by the complainant whom he told that it would cost him $2,000 for s*x and $1,500 for oral s*x.

“Him say him want a blow job [oral s*x] and we went over the park and while I was doing it (the second accused) came by and him say him waa him fi give him a blow job too, and mi say ‘yu haffi pay mi first’ and him give mi $1,000,” the accused man said.

He said he then got a call from a client and left to do business and when he came back he saw the third accused and the man throwing stones at each other and he called a cab and went home.

The second accused told the court that he, too, had performed oral s*x on the complainant but when he was finished the complainant did not want to pay him and he dipped into the complainant’s pocket and took out $1,000.

It was then that he claimed the complainant pulled a knife at him and the third accused came and took away the knife, while another man came and took away his phone and bag.

“We were having an altercation, stones were flinging and stones were flinging and we fled,” he said.

The other accused said he saw the complainant and the second accused in a dispute and went to intervene when he saw the complainant pull a knife.

The complainant’s phone was found in a room occupied by the third accused but he told the court that it was another homos*xual living in the gully who gave him the phone to charge and he did not know that it had been stolen.

According to the first accused, the complainant knew that they were men.

“At first he was pretending like he didn’t know we were gays, but I was dressed in just a brassiere and skirt and my other friend did not have any top and he was sucking on his nipples,” he said.

The judge, after listening to their story which he said was far different from the prosecution’s version, told them that he was not going to offer them bail, as they did not have fixed addresses and it was in the public’s interest to keep them in custody.

He also told them that he would not accept their guilty pleas as they had presented a defence, saying it was someone else who had robbed the complainant.

The judge, however, indicated that while he had taken their story with a “fistful of salt”, he had to accept their version as a defence.

“It is either you are telling the truth or you are not,” he told them.

At the same time, he told them that he was aware of the usual practice by homos*xuals when they are charged with robbery to try and smear the complainant’s image and to embarrass and traumatise them so that they do not return to court.

The complainant, who had been keenly listening to the accused men without appearing moved, raised his hand to say something but was told by the judge to put his hand down if he was thinking of dropping the case.

The complainant, who appeared upset at the men said: “Drop case? Every court date I will be here. I’m willing to leave my hustle and come here.”

The accused men will return to court next Tuesday in this matter where they will be assigned legal aid.

Man fined $10,000 for being on UWI campus at 3:00 am

Two men found themselves in trouble with the law after they were caught on the compound of the Mona School of Business at The University of West Indies in Kingston early one morning.

Clifford Cameron and Desmond Lawson were both arrested after they were seen among a group of men congregated on the campus at 3:15 am. Some of the men ran and the two were held and charged with being in a restricted area, as they had no lawful reason for being on the campus and were neither students or employed to the university.

Both men initially pleaded not guilty, claiming they had been invited to an event on the campus.

Lawson, who spoke on their behalf, told the court that they had attended an event at the school but it ended late and they decided to stay over.

But the investigating officer told the court that no event was held that day.

The judge then told the men that he did not want them to waste his time as they were admitting that they were present there without any lawful excuse.

He then asked that they be re-pleaded and Lawson pleaded guilty while the other pleaded not guilty but was remanded.

“I don’t want to get into the meat of the matter, but I know the problem that the university is having with a group of men and my court is an intervention court. I try to help young men like you but, to no avail.

“You are a nuisance to the university and you are a security risk, and I don’t know what else to do to prevent you from not going up there,” he said.

Lawson was subsequently ordered to pay $10,000 or spend 30 days in the prison, while Cameron was remanded for trial in the night court on Monday.

Judge tells man he’s allergic to

A man who was taken to court for repeatedly slapping his sister-in -law in her face after waking her up was sentenced to six months in prison. However, Judge Chester Crooks took pity on the man’s mother and suspended the sentence for a year.

“I am allergic to men who beat women, it’s a big medical condition,” the judge told Dane Lewis after he pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding last Friday.

The father of two girls was arrested and charged after he went into the complainant’s house, woke her up, and hit her repeatedly.

Lewis, when asked why he hit the complainant, told Judge Crooks that he did it out of ignorance.

But the judge told him that aside from the fact that he went into the woman’s house and woke her up, he could have found another way to resolve whatever dispute he had with her or he could have taken her to court if he felt that she had defamed him in the public.

The complainant’s mother, who was present in court, said she was not pleased with Lewis’s behaviour as his attack could have resulted in her daughter suffering a “heart failure”. She also said he could have waited until he saw her on the street to confront her.

Judge Crooks however said he was “sick and tried” of men coming before the court for hitting women and slapped Lewis with a six-month sentence.

“It’s getting very critical, but let’s call this an intervention,” he said.

He then told Lewis to apologise and say goodbye to his mother who broke down in tears when her son hugged her. But while the mother was walking through the door in tears, the judge called her back.

He told her that he was not going to send Lewis to prison, instead he was going to suspend the sentence for a year and warned Lewis to remember the next time when he is about to hit another woman that his actions not only impact him but others,, including his mother and two daughters.