A Kingston man who reportedly beat his five-year-old daughter with a broom and broke her arm because she could not spell the words “mother” and “father” was denied bail when he appeared in the Corporate Area Resident’s Magistrate’s Court.
The accused, Omar James, a higgler of Luke Lane in downtown Kingston, was remanded in custody on charges of assault occasioning bodily harm and cruelty to a child when Senior Magistrate Judith Pusey refused to accept his bail application after speaking to the five-year-old complainant.
When the matter was mentioned Tuesday, the magistrate asked the injured child, whose arm was in a bandage, to sit beside her and tell what happened.
Shortly after, Magistrate Pusey told the court, “She told me the whole story. She said that her father used a broom to beat her because she couldn’t spell the words.”
The magistrate then told the court that the child had also shown her other marks of violence on her right arm.
“What is your client saying?” the magistrate then asked James’ lawyer, Patrick Peterkin.
“The instruction that I have is that it has something to do with a door,” he replied.
Peterkin then told the court that his client understood the seriousness of the charges and asked for his client to be admitted to bail.
But the magistrate said that people must understand that children are human beings like adults and should be treated with respect.
James was subsequently remanded and is to return to court on August 27.
According to the complainant’s statement, on July 11 she was home with her father when he used a belt and a broom to beat her because she could not spell her words.
The complainant said that during the whipping she ran under the bed and her father told her to come out and when she complied he beat her until she vomited.
The complainant said her father then told her to wipe up the vomit and after she did he carried her and left her with a friend.
According to the complainant, whenever she cannot spell the word her father does not give her anything to eat until she get the words correct.
At the time of the incident the complainant had been living with the accused for three weeks.
OMG! What a barbaric and inhumane thing to do to a child. She should not have had to experience such traumatic event at such a fragile age. I pray with ever fiber of my being that she does not suffer from PTSD after that ordeal. One can but only imagine the psychological state of that innocent loving little angel
I was brought to tears by reading this. What a horrible monster!!! How can you treat a child in such manner?! A can bet him cant spell the same words dem weh him a beat har fi spell either. I understand you want your child to learn but that is not the way in which to accomplish it.
Share the same sentiments…the way children is being treated nowadays even by those who suppose to be protecting them, mek mi heart weep a tell you..
How incredibly horrifying that these subhumans procreate? Honestly, this bastard is sick and distorted.
Poor baby girl *tears* I know her pain, the fear she felt when he told her to come from under the bed. I remember being around that age n my mom teaching me. One time i didn’t get the words right n she took my head n smash it in the wall..Another time I couldnt finish my porridge quick enough for her n she beat me until my head burst n my hand broke. I remember tellin the doctor I fell out of the breadfruit tree coz I didnt want them to take her away. She was my only parent at the time…sigh!
Which five yr old know how fi spell those words anyway? Di man dawk like midnight, someone should teck a baseball bat to him meck him feel what it feel like. Is di grace of God carry some of through out of these despicable households.