A student of North Union Secondary School (NUSS) has been ordered to appear before the Serious Offences Court on March 5 in connection with a drug possession charge and four others.
The 15-year-old male, who was born in Guadeloupe, has been living in St. Vincent since last December and has been enrolled at NUSS for the past three weeks.
He appeared at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court on Monday, on the same day that his father was also brought to court on indecent language and assault charges, allegedly committed at Diamond on Feb. 15.
The student’s father told the court that his son is Vincentian by descent.
When the first charge was put to the student, he told the court, “I don’t speak good English.”
The magistrate inquired about the student’s parents and was told that the youth’s father was also in court.
The student’s father told the court that his son’s school calls him occasionally and tells him to help him with English, as his son’s English is “poor”.
Magistrate Bertie Pompey read more slowly the charge that on Feb. 15, at Diamonds, the student had in his possession 293 grams of cannabis with the intent to supply to another.
The student pleaded not guilty.
The youth further pleaded not guilty to charges that on Feb. 15, also at Diamond, he assaulted Police Constable 746 Ollivierre of Coulls Hill, occasioning actual bodily harm and that he resisted the arrest of Ollivierre, he being a police officer acting in due execution of his duty.
The student pleaded not guilty to these charges, and a trial was set for March 26.
He, however pleaded guilty to the charge that on Feb. 20, at Diamond, in circumstances likely to cause a breach of peace, he made use of indecent language to Police Constable 591 Joshua Robinson, to wit, “come up in alyo m***er c**t”.
According to the facts read in court, the student made the remark when police went to Diamonds to investigate a matter involving him and his father.
When a surety attended court to sign the bail bond, Prosecutor Sergeant Renrick Cato reminded the court that the surety had signed station bail on a previous matter.
Pompey, however, allowed the same surety, explaining the conditions attached to the bail and the penalties if they are breached.
The student, who stood in the defendants’ dock while the surety was being briefed, later voiced a concern about not being able to see his father in prison.
The surety had arrived after the student’s father was remanded to prison.
Pompey stopped the student from proceeding further and told him to speak with the officers with regard to his concern.
At this point, the prosecutor pointed out that the defendant seemed to have understood everything that had just been said.
Cato further said that the student had used the indecent language very well in English.
The prosecutor said that perhaps if the defendant had used French — the main language of Guadeloupe — the police would not have understood what he had said and that the charge would not have been brought against him.
Pompey bonded the student to keep the peace for one year. If he breaks the bond, he must pay the court EC$1,000 forthwith or go to prison for six months.
The student’s father was remanded to prison until Thursday for bail review.