A woman who was assaulted by a man during a heated exchange about their private parts, complained to the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court last week that the man “styled” her genitals.
The complainant told the court that the accused, Fabian Clarke, punched her in her eyes, causing them to be swollen, and cut her in the forehead during an argument.
“We live in the same area. Him describe mi private parts and mi say something back to him and
him attack me,” the woman told the court.
However, this was quickly denied by Clarke.
“I didn’t say anything about her private parts,” he said. “I don’t even know her like that to say anything about her private parts.”
“Him style me private parts and when me ansa, him thump me,” the complainant insisted.
“Your Honour, multiple thump me get. Him hold me by me neck like this, and bum, bum, bum to me face,” the complainant said, using her hands to demonstrate how Clarke had punched her repeatedly.
Clarke, however, maintained that he did not make any such unflattering comments to her and that she was the one who disrespected him by telling him what he should do to her.
He also told the court that he did not cut her on her forehead
“We were fighting, a car was there and she hit in the car, and that’s how she got the cut,” Clarke said.
“Is multiple times him thump me inna mi face. Mi get four stitches, Your Honour,” the complainant added.
Resident Magistrate (RM) Judith Pusey then asked the accused: “Why do you think you shouldn’t go to jail for this?”
Clarke in response said: “This is the first time anything like this ever happen to me.”
“Whatever happened to you? I don’t see you with any injuries, she has the mark in her face,” Pusey told him.
“I run into the law,” Clarke then explained.
“Well if you thump people inna dem face, that’s what happens,” RM Pusey remarked, before taking Clarke into custody for sentencing on Friday.
However, when he appeared in court on Friday she was absent and the sentencing was postponed for May 6.
The complainant, however, told the court that she was experiencing pain and wanted compensation for her pain and suffering.
“Right now mi eye a pain mi and me a feel a lump under mi eye,” she said.
Resident Magistrate Georgianna Fraser then asked her how much she was requesting and she said $35,000.
Clarke then agreed to compensate her and asked the magistrate for bail, but she told him that she could not help him.
“You were remanded by the magistrate for some reason and I am not getting into it,” Fraser said.
Man arrested for sleeping in gully
There was laughter in the court last week when a man who was arrested for sleeping in a gully in New Kingston denied living in the gully, but claimed that he visits his friends there occasionally.
“I live on Fourth Street in downtown Kingston,” the accused, David Bryce, told the court when RM Pusey asked him his address.
“So you don’t live there?” Pusey said, referring to the gully which is often used as home by gay men and drug abusers.
“I pass by there sometimes,” he said, amidst laughter from the court.
Bryce was brought before the court for breaching the National Solid Waste Management Authority Act, after he was reportedly caught in the gully, on Dumphries Road, with a quantity of clothing and a makeshift bed.
But Bryce denied having any clothing or makeshift bed inthe gully.
“What you have around there?” Pusey asked him.
“I have my friends around there,” he replied.
In the end, a trial date was
set for May 20 and Bryce’s bail was extended.
Vendor fights 70-year-old for sunglasses
A male higgler was hauled before the court last week for reportedly fighting a senior citizen for a pair of sunglasses which he snatched from her and destroyed.
The 44-year-old accused, Peter Walters, of Greenwich Town in Kingston, reportedly engaged in a tussle with the 70-year-old vendor after she refused to hand over the sunglasses to him, which he claimed was his.
The court heard that, on April 26 about 9:00 am, the complainant was at her stall in ‘Ray Ray Ground’, Kingston dusting and packing out her merchandise when Walters saw her with the sunglasses and demanded it, but she refused.
Walters reportedly grabbed her from behind to get the sunglasses and they both began to wrestle.
It was reported that Walters then pushed the woman to the ground and took away the sunglasses and broke the item into pieces.
The matter was reported and he was charged with malicious destruction of property and assault.
However, on Thursday when he appeared in court, he pleaded not guilty to the charges while maintaining that the sunglasses were his.
But the complainant insisted that they were hers.
“My friend gone to America and when she was going away she gave it to me,” the woman explained.
The matter was as a result set for trial on June 10 and Walters’ bail was extended.
Lock-up conversation lands man in trouble
A St Catherine taxi driver who sneaked inside the Hunt’s Bay police lock-up to speak to his cousin, found himself on the wrong side of the law after he was charged with conversing with a prisoner.
It was reported that the accused, Ralston Lennon of Frazer’s Content, Spanish Town, in St Catherine, refused to end the conversation with the inmate when he was told to do so and was also charged with disobeying a constable’s command.
According to police reports, on April 15 about 2:00 pm, Lennon was seen inside the police lock-up talking to his cousin who was in custody.
He was reportedly told to go to the reception area and remove himself from the lock-up as he was not allowed to be there, but he refused.
It was also reported that Lennon told the police: “Officer, mi nah move, mi know di procedure, mi walk round de side and come talk to me cousin.”
On Tuesday when he appeared in court he pleaded not guilty to the charges and a trial date was set for May 27.
His bail was also extended.
Man steals bicycle from police station
A higgler who reportedly stole a man’s bicycle from the police station while he was giving a statement is to be tried on June 10.
The trial date was scheduled in court on Tuesday after the accused, 23-year-old Jason Miller of Crescent Road in Kingston, pleaded not guilty to charges of simple larceny and malicious destruction of property.
The accused told the court that he did not steal anyone’s bicycle and that they saw him riding a bicycle and accused him of stealing it.
“Whose bicycle is it?” RM
Pusey asked.
“Ah me father bicycle,”
Miller answered.
The court heard that on April 11, the complainant parked his bicycle outside the Hunt’s Bay Police Station and went to give police a statement in relation to an incident in which he was stabbed by a woman.
On the complainant’s return, the bicycle was reportedly missing and he was told by a witness that the accused was seen riding off with the bicycle.
According to the police, the woman who had stabbed the complainant had sent Miller, who is her boyfriend, to take away the complainant’s bicycle and destroy it.
Miller was reportedly instructed by the police to return the bicycle, which he did, but was subsequently arrested and charged.
The complainant was earlier allegedly wounded by Miller’s girlfriend after he went to ask her for $3,000 that she allegedly owed his girlfriend for clothes that she had credited.