A Campden Park man who choked and slapped his ex-girlfriend two days before Christmas and stole her phone was, on Tuesday, made to serve an automatic six-month jail terms for breaking his bond, plus time for his crimes against his former partner.
Further, Senior Magistrate Rickie Burnett ordered the man, Onez John, to serve two three months jail terms, one for assaulting the woman and the other for destroying her phone.
This means that he will spend 12 months in jail.
On Monday, at the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court, John pleaded guilty to a charge that on Dec. 23, 2021, he assaultedOphelia Warren, causing actual bodily harm.
According to the facts, read by prosecutor Corporal Corlene Samuel, John and Warren were in a relationship.
John was in the habit of going to the woman’s home and provoking her and assaulting her at times.
She would report the incidents to the police but would withdraw the complaints subsequently.
On Dec. 23, about 10:35 p.m., Warren was at home when John arrived at her home to speak to her. She told him she had no interest in speaking to him and told him to leave.
John, however, went to a table in Warren’s yard and sat on it and refused to leave.
Warren left the yard, went into the porch and telephoned her daughter.
While on the phone, Warren saw John pass closed to her and was looking at her. She ended the call and was about to switch off the phone when Warren approached and asked her who she was taking to.
He took the phone and slammed it onto the ground several times and kept it in his possession.
Warren tried to walk away and John slapped her several times. He held on to her neck, choked her and told her that she could not leave and go talk to any man.
John continued to scuffle Warren but released her on hearing what sounded like people talking.
Warren went to a shop where she met a guy and asked him to call the police. The person was about to give Warren a phone call, when John came by and told them not to.
He grabbed Warren and told her, “Oh you want to call the police?” then told her he had money to give her.
Sergeant Thomas was out on mobile patrol and passed that area and Warren stopped the police vehicle and told the officer what had happened.
John ran when Warren was making the report.
Warren was issued with medical injury forms, which she returned with the doctor’s findings.
On Jan. 15, John was arrested in a van and taken to the Questelles Polcie Station, where he gave a statement admitting to the offence.
A search warrant was executed at his house, but the phone was not recovered.
“Wait a while. Mr John, so you are on a one-year bond,” the senior magistrate said on receiving the defendant’s criminal record.
“Yeah, but otherwise than that is just because of she —“ John was saying when the magistrate stopped him and reminded him that he had pleaded guilty to the charges.
“So is not because of she; is because of you,” Burnett told the defendant, who fired back that he does not get himself in troubled.
“I ain’t a bad boy.”
Warren told the court that she and John were together for nine months and he used to abuse her.
“That is clear as day,” Burnett said when the woman spoke of being abused.
Warren told the court that her relationship with John ended in October.
The defendant accused Warren of lying, “We got back into a relationship. We even went to her parents,” John said, adding that this was after he was bonded.
At this point, the prosecution asked why was the bond was imposed and the magistrate said for theft and burglary.
“So I don’t know why he introducing that,” Burnett said and quizzed John about why he had gone to Warren’s place on Dec. 23.
John told the court that he and warren were together until Christmas Eve.
“Knowing how humans operate, as far as you are concerned, you finished with this man but as far as he is concerned, you were in a relationship with him still,” Burnett told Warren.
As the mitigation part of the hearing continued, John appeared to be about to divulge the details of his relationship with Warren.
However, Burnett informed him that everything said in the court is being recorded and could be reported on by the media and that the court does not want to know the private things that went on between him and his ex-girlfriend.
The magistrate asked John if he agreed with the facts as presented by the prosecution, and he said yes.
“Even before I sentence you for these offences, I am calling upon you right now to pay the sum of EC$2,500 or you are going to prison for six months,” Burnett told John.
The magistrate activated the one-year bond that the same court had imposed on John on Aug. 9, 2021.
“I do not have any power to waive that order that was made by me,” the magistrate said.
He stood the matter down so that John could make a call in an attempt to get the EC$2,500.
When the matter was recalled, John told the court that the person who was getting the money was in the line at the bank.
He told the court that the person had said that the line was long.
“So, if the person is in the line, let the person remain in the line because the person is in the line to get the $2,500 because that is what I am interested in — and you as well,” Burnett siad.
He told John that the money would “determine whether you re going to prison or if you are really going to prison.
“Because if you are going for breaking the bond, then you are there already,” Burnett said.
He adjourned the sentencing to the following day.
“If on the 18th there is no one to pay the $2,500, it means that no one is coming to pay,” he said and remanded John in custody.
John was unable to pay the bond the following and the jail sentences were imposed.