A delinquent father was last week brought before the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court after he got upset at his “babymother” for taking out a summons to take him to the Family Court for child support and for using half of a building block to hit her several times in the head.
The court heard that the complainant was at her home in Bull Bay, St Thomas on May 31, when the father of two of her children, Lorenzo Findley, took up the piece of block and hit her repeatedly in the head.
The matter was reported and Findley was arrested and charged with assault occasioning bodily harm and was remanded when he appeared in court on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty.
On Friday when Findley returned to court for sentencing, the complainant told the court that he attacked her because she insisted that she was going to take him to court.
She explained that on the day in question he was at her home when the police came to serve him the summons but he hid.
However, she said that when the police left he came out of hiding and a quarrel developed between them.
“Him say to me ‘you neva send yuh next babyfada a court but yuh waa send me’ and me say to him, yuh lucky, yuh a guh,” the complainant told the court.
She said after that, Findley then grabbed the piece of block and started to hit her.
The magistrate then turned to Findley and asked him if he had anything to tell her as to why she should not send him to prison.
“No, Your Honour,” Findley answered.
“You don’t have any reason why you should not go back from whence you came?” RM Pusey asked.
She then told him, “I have a problem with people who think that because woman conceive for them they have a right to treat them inhumane.
“Because she is your babymother doesn’t give you the right to hit her,” the magistrate added.
The complainant then interjected and told the court that they also have a custody hearing before the Family Court for their 13-year-old son, as Findley has taken the child and has refused to send him home after she sent him to spend the holiday.
But Findley told the court that his son was the one who told him that he did not want to return to live with his mother.
“Him say him don’t want go and say him getting a lot of disrespect,” he said.
“Children don’t make those decisions,” RM Pusey then told Findley before instructing him to take his son home and to make sure that he also take along money for his maintenance.
“I get the feeling why you don’t want to bring him back is because you don’t want to pay the maintenance,” the magistrate said.
However, she told Findley that she was going to send him home for him to take his son to his mother and to return to court for his sentencing on October 24.
“Come and tell me if you get back your child and how much money him give you as it will determine his sentence,” the magistrate advised the complainant.
Parents in court for child cruelty
A couple was dragged before the courts for reportedly leaving their children unattended and for not feeding one of them.
Raymond Henry, 51, and his common-law wife Phyllis Powell, 26, of Oliver Road, Kingston 2 were both arrested and charged for cruelty to child, disorderly conduct and assaulting the police.
The investigator told the court that police visited the couple’s home on September 25 about 9:00 am, after a concerned neighbour called the police about the children and found the couple’s three-year-old son all alone inside the house with a hot plate on in the room.
The couple’s nine-year-old son was also reportedly seen sitting outside on a wall and told the police that he had not eaten from morning and that his mother often leaves them for days.
The court also heard that the police drove around the community in search of the couple but did not find them and when they were about to carry the children to the station they saw both parents coming in
the opposite direction.
Powell, it was reported, told the police that she woke up late and went to the shop to buy something but was not observed with anything in her hand.
It was also reported that she told the police that she had left the children with her grandfather but the grandfather when questioned told the police that the children were not his responsibility.
The court further heard that the couple and the children were taken to the station and when they got there, both accused assaulted two police officers when the police attempted to take their children.
On Monday when the matter was first mentioned in court, Powell denied reports that she was not taking good care of her children.
“Me love me kids as God liveth,” she said, on the verge of shedding tears.
“If you love them so much, how come them going without food?” RM Pusey asked her.
“A some people a tell de police a bag a things but me love me kids,” she insisted while complaining that she had not seen her children since the police took them.
The matter was however rescheduled for Friday, October 24, and when it came up, the magistrate instructed a probation officer to provide her with a social enquiry report.
She also told the probation officer to find out whether or not the children could be returned to their parents.
“If it’s possible the children should go back to their parents as they are not in no real danger,” she said.
Rastaman and son war over fridge
A Rastafarian man who faced the court for reportedly grabbing his father by the neck during a dispute at their home, was on Friday instructed by the court to leave his father’s house.
Jumanji Prescott, 30, of a Kingston address, appeared on a charge of assault, but insisted that he was innocent.
“That’s not true,” he said in a thick American accent.
“There was an altercation, but I never throw any physical blows at my father. When he attacked me I tried to restrain him,” Prescott said.
The magistrate then enquired about the reason for the dispute.
“The way I did the yard work wasn’t up to what he wanted,” Prescott replied.
However, his father told the court that the dispute started over the use of his refrigerator.
The complainant told the court that he was using Prescott’s fridge but because of his son’s behaviour, he
and his wife got a new fridge for themselves.
But he said that after getting the fridge Prescott unplugged his, and put his items into their fridge.
“But I said no way we are going to share my fridge and he objected to that and when I was at home eating my breakfast he came up into my face to confront me,” the complainant said.
Following that, the complainant said the accused then started to cut down the tree in the yard and when he spoke to him about it he got upset and grabbed him by his neck.
“Why don’t you find your own quarter?” RM Pusey asked.
“Finding my own quarter is a difficult task,” he answered.
The magistrate then told him that since finding his own home was such a difficult task, he should abide by his father’s rule.
“So just take abuse ’cause he is the father, is that what you’re saying?” Prescott asked the magistrate.
“I have a scratch on my neck,” he added.
“You can’t be in your father’s house and chop down his trees, he has a right to protect his property,” RM Pusey said.
But at the same time she told him that the crux of the matter was that, “all of us have to learn that when we start to big up our chest, we have to find our own home.”
She then told the court that domestic violence was the second leading cause of death in the island after murder and reprisal killing.
“You must decide that if you’re going to stay you have to tone it down by thousands of decibels or get out.”
She then asked him when he was going to move and he said he has been trying for a long while but without success.
“You have to move,” she told him.
“Even if it leaves me homeless, “Prescott mumbled.
The magistrate then told him that she was going to give him $30,000 bail and that he should find a new home.
Prescott then asked the court if he could post the sum for his own bail but was told that money was not used to post bail and that he could not bail himself and was told to ask his father.
“Can you bail me?” he hesitantly asked his father .
“No. I don’t want you back in my house. This is the end of the line,” the angry father said.
Prescott then asked the magistrate if he could get a call to contact one of his neighbours and was told that the police would assist him.
The matter was then scheduled for mention on November 27.
Teens claims he robs gold chain to start his own business
A teenager accused of stealing a gold chain claimed he snatched the piece of jewellery to get funds to start his own business.
The accused, 18-year-old Damion Scott was arrested and charged with simple larceny after he grabbed the gold chain from the complainant’s neck in downtown Kingston on October 13, and was caught by the police with the item in his pocket.
On Tuesday when Scott appeared in court before Magistrate Simone Wolfe-Reece, he pleaded guilty to the charge “with explanation”.
“What is your explanation?” the magistrate asked. “Miss, dem search me a Juici Beef a town, and find di chain in me pocket,” Scott began.
“We know dem search you and find it. Why you steal the chain?” RM Wolfe-Reece probed.
“Mi want fi start up mi business,” Scott replied.
“Yuh want to start up business? Which business that?” RM Wolfe-Reece asked, but he did not respond.
Scott was subsequently remanded for sentencing on October 24.
