“WHO the hell did that, was it Jesus who did it?” a distraught man blurted out in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court last week, in recounting the question that he asked his Christian wife after discovering a “hickey” on her neck.
The 42-year-old taxi-driver, Ainsley Watson, made the query after he was brought before the court for reportedly bashing his wife’s head in a car and also punching and slapping her in the face, causing injuries to her neck, head and back, after seeing the mark on her neck.
According to the complainant, she was going to the supermarket at Twin Gates Plaza in Half-Way-Tree, St Andrew when her husband saw her and got enraged after asking, “A wha do you neck?”
Watson, however, denied the allegation, stating: “I never touched her, she run and slam herself inna di car.
“She is a habitual liar, that’s my wife for many years. I can tell you that,” he said before he was told by Senior Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey to stop talking.
Watson then repeated that he would never harm his wife, even though he was quite distraught about seeing her with the “hickey”.
“I was so traumatised,” he said. “I would never do something like that to her.”
Pusey then told him that in law he was responsible for his wife’s injuries, as he was the one who had caused her to get hurt. But Watson maintained that he was innocent. However, he later accepted the responsibility after a lawyer spoke to him.
But the complainant, who was wearing a neck brace, shocked the court when she reported that she and Watson were separated for the past four years even though they had been living together up until last March.
But this was also denied by Watson.
“She has been calling and texting me and telling me that she looking place for us and the children,” said Watson, noting that he was hoping to reconcile with his wife.
“There is no way that you and your wife can be separated for four years and you don’t know,” Pusey said to him.
“Your Honour, I have her as a faithful wife as she is still in the church like me,” he said.
But Pusey told him that he should remember that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”. She also told him that she understood that he was hurt but that he will have to move on with his life.
“Right now I am having nightmares,” Watson said, amid laughter.
Pusey then asked the complainant if she would be willing to give her marriage another chance and she said “no” while indicating that Watson was an alcoholic whom she had reported to the police several times.
The magistrate then asked her the cost of her medical bill and she said that she will need $95,000 to treat her injuries and to cover the cost for X-rays, MRI and a brain scan.
Watson was then instructed to return to court on March 3 with $100,000 to compensate her.
Man upset over being labelled oral sex performer
A man was also hauled before the court for reportedly assaulting his ex-girlfriend after she accused him of performing oral sex.
Devon Smith is accused of punching the complainant in her face and hitting her in the forehead with a Heineken beer bottle after he got upset at her accusation.
However, Smith denied the allegation on Wednesday, claiming that it was the complainant who first attacked him.
“I was seeing her and she was seeing me,” he said, sparking laughter from the court. “But I tell her that it finish cause mi live with mi wife and she live upstairs and every time me pass she a seh mi put mi head unda frock.
“Me neva do that to her,” he said.
He then explained that on the day of the incident she was standing at the grille when she made the accusation and they got into a confrontation.
“You have to try a little harder than that, as the physical evidence is not consistent with what you are saying,” Pusey told him.
“I try to ease her off and she hit up inna de grille,” he said.
“Who is therefore responsible, me or you? the magistrate asked.
“Not guilty,” Smith replied.
As a result, the matter was scheduled for trial on March 31 and his bail was extended.
Man to sue woman for calling him ‘gay’
A caretaker who assaulted a woman after she accused him of being a homosexual and a pervert, told the court that he was suing the woman for $500,000 for defaming his character.
The accused, Mark Knott, was arrested and charged for assault occasioning bodily harm after he used a shovel to hit the complainant in her head and face during an argument.
Knott told the court that he went to speak to the complainant about a manhole cover that her child and another child had troubled, when she got upset and started cursing him and accusing him of wanting to have sex with little boys.
“Your Honour, you know what that could do to my reputation if people in the street heard?” he said.
Knott said that he was so hurt over what the complainant had said, that he got upset and hit her.
“You should hear the things people say about me, but that doesn’t mean I should go and fight them,” Pusey told Knott.
She then enquired about the cost of the complainant’s medical fee and was told by the complainant that Knott had taken out a lawsuit against her.
“I am suing her for $500,000,” Knott revealed.
“For what,” asked Pusey.
“Defaming my character,” he answered.
The magistrate then turned to the complainant and told her: “Go down and take out a lawsuit for $500,000 for your injuries. The advice is free. You don’t have to take it.”
Knott was then ordered to pay $25,000 or serve six months in prison.
Couple robs bearer while accusing him of rape
A couple was dragged before the court on charges of robbery with aggravation and common assault after the two reportedly robbed a bearer of several packs of cigarettes after accusing him of rape.
Jermaine Johnson, 29, bearer of Bull Bay, St Andrew, and Lasandra Hughes, 18, of Tivoli Gardens in West Kingston, reportedly robbed the complainant, who is a bearer for Carreras, of 149 packs of assorted cigarettes on January 13.
Allegations are that on the day in question the complainant stopped at a bar on Greenvale Road in St Andrew during his daily rounds, when the couple rode up on a bike.
It is reported that Johnson then grabbed the complainant by his shirt and said: “How you rape me sista and bow har up and punch har inna har face.”
The complainant, who thought that Johnson was joking, reportedly denied knowing Johnson or his sister.
But Johnson reportedly persisted: “How you fi do har dat?”, while trying to push his hands in the complainant’s pocket, but he maintained that he did not know either of them.
It was further reported that Hughes then joined in, saying, “A true a yuh dweet,” and then pulled a long knife and stabbed at him.
Johnson then reportedly took up the complainant’s two bags containing the cigarettes and told him to follow him to the police station before riding off with Hughes.
The matter was reported, and both accused were later held by the police with the bags.
However, Johnson’s attorney, Anthony Pearson, told the court that both accused were involved in a relationship and that his client confronted the complainant about violating his girlfriend but did not rob or assault him.
Both were then offered bail by Senior Magistrate Judith Pusey and the matter was set for trial on March 26.