Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant today sent a strong message to men who hit women after a 32-year-old man explained his reasons for striking his ex-girlfriend while she was at a cemetery placing flowers on a grave.
“I want you and other men out there to know that women are not your property. I want you to understand that,” the judicial officer stated in the No. 2 District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court.
Damien Rommal Thorpe, of Mayers Land, Goodland, St Michael who last week pleaded guilty to assaulting Ronda Thorpe-Young occasioning her actual bodily harm explained that he believed the woman cost him his job.
“We had finished and she called me back and we finished again . . . and she threatened me and said she will make me get fired. Then I get a call that my contract terminated . . . and they did not give me any reason why.
“I saw her and asked her how she can make me lose my job and she say she ain’t care nothing about my job. I just get vex and tap she - give she a cuff - but I did not hit her three times,” said Thorpe who added: “She said she didn’t care about me and the man that she dealing with will do me something.”
However, the magistrate asked: “Whose mouth did she use?” This prompted him to issue an apology just before Cuffy-Sargeant issued the warning.
“I am sorry for my actions and thing,” said Thorpe who went on to disclose that he had also lent the complaint $300 and asked her for the money back in December. But he claimed Thorpe-Young responded to him negatively and so he hit her.
“Are you a woman beater?” the magistrate asked, to which Thorpe answered: “No ma’am”.
Thorpe-Young also addressed the court saying that she never borrowed money from her ex-partner as she had been supporting him.
“This is not the first time he hit me,” she said as she detailed the December incident.
After hearing the two sides the magistrate ordered that Thorpe pay Thorpe-Young, who presented medical receipts, the sum of $580.
However, the magistrate also said she also believed that the complainant borrowed the money from the accused and as such the amount would be deducted.
Thorpe now has one month to pay his victim $280. If he fails to pay the amount by March 25 he will spend six weeks in prison.
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