Young woman fined for assaulting man, 74

A Golden Vale resident was earlier this week found guilty of assaulting her ex-lover.{{more}}

Michelle Walker, a 34-year-old woman, has been ordered to pay lab technician Selwyn John compensation of $800 by August 31, 2013, or she will go to prison for four weeks.

She was also placed on a six-month bond in the sum of $1,500. In default, she will spend six months in jail.

Walker was found guilty of assault, causing actual bodily harm, in an incident which took place on July 31, 2013.

When he took the stand at the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court on August 19, John said he had just returned from the beach at 6:45 p.m., when he met Walker standing at the gate of his home on the Road to Leeward, just opposite the laundry of the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH).

The 74-year-old man said he alighted from his vehicle and asked Walker what she was doing there. He said an argument then ensued between them, during which Walker struck him on his head with a bag.

He said at the time of the incident, two women who used to do his laundry were in his vehicle.

John said he fell to the ground and when he got up, Walker pushed him into the gutter, resulting in him sustaining injuries to his right hand and hip.

Under cross-examination, Walker’s lawyer, Grant Connell, asked John what was his martial status.

“My wife is abroad,” John replied.

“Like she has something sweet that your wife doesn’t have,” Connell asked John, referring to Walker.

“Yes, she does. She (the wife) is intelligent,” John replied.

“So, what was her (Walker’s) role? Was she a (expletive) friend? Connell asked.

With a look of amusement on his face and accompanied by laughter from the prisoners and other persons seated in the courtroom, John replied “If you want to call it that.”

John confirmed that he and Walker had a sexual relationship.

Connell put it to John that Walker was offended when she went to his residence and met another woman there.

The lawyer suggested that John was still obsessed with Walker, even after they had ended their relationship.

He told John that on the day in question, Walker pushed him down because he tried to grab her private area.

“Absolutely not!” John replied.

“Are you a pervert?”

“No,” John answered.

John told the court that after Walker assaulted him, he took out his cellular phone to call the police, but Walker knocked it out of his hand.

Connell said when the incident took place, his client threatened to go to the police, so the next day, John went to the police and concocted the story that Walker had assaulted him.

John, however, said he made the report to the police the same day of the incident and went to the hospital the following day.

After a no-case submission by Connell was denied, Walker took the stand.

The unemployed woman said at about 7:30 p.m., she was walking in the area of the hospital laundry, on her way to Super J supermarket to buy chicken, when she saw John’s vehicle pass by.

“He came out of the vehicle and came on the opposite side to where I was.

He said, “Look at you, you went to the Grenadines and had fun. Look at that tight buttercup.”

Walker explained to the court that John usually calls her vagina a buttercup.

She said he tried touching her vagina repeatedly and she told him not to do it.

“I pushed him. I have a C-section and every time there is touched, it gives me discomfort. So, I pushed him and he fell,” Walker testified.

She further told the court that John got up and went for a rock and was threatening to strike her with it. Walker said she walked faster, until she entered a passenger van.

The woman said a little later, a police officer came to where the van was and took her to the police station.

Inspector Glenford Gregg, during cross-examination, asked Walker why she had left Golden Vale, passing other supermarkets along the way, to come to Stoney Ground to purchase chicken at Super J.

Walker replied,, “It is my choice.”

Gregg put it to Walker that her plan was to come to town to harass John that night.

Walker also denied striking John in his head.

She said she had made a report of being sexually assaulted, but nothing was done.

Connell argued that the evidence of John was not supported by the injury form. He said no X-rays were done to show injuries.

“It must be specific that the actions of the defendant caused actual bodily harm. The prosecution’s case has significant doubts.

However, Gregg disputed Connell’s submissions and said that John’s evidence was clear and precise.

The magistrate overruled Connell’s submission and stated that Walker did have a case to answer.

In his closing arguments, Connell says it seems as if women can be disrespected because the system is failing.

“A report was made of her being indecently assaulted. Self-defence is a complete defence. He assaulted her and she defended herself… That is why women would continue to be disrespected in this country. The system fails,” Connell said.

After finding Walker guilty, the magistrate said she found John’s evidence consistent with the medical report.

In mitigation, Connell said his client expressed great remorse, but noted “if the buttercup is touched again, she will do the same thing.”