Security guard found guilty of assaulting ex-girlfriend

Christopher Thomas, Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:A security guard of Blytheston, near Content in St James, was placed in police custody until August 5, when he will be sentenced for severely beating his ex-girlfriend.

Elton Williams was found guilty of punching his ex-girlfriend in her face and upper body during his trial in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court on Monday.

A social enquiry report will also be presented at the sentencing.

Williams had maintained that he was innocent of assault occasioning bodily harm brought against him by the complainant, Nicola Brown.

Brown told Resident Magistrate Carolyn Tai that, on the morning of November 4 last year, she alighted from a bus along Barnett Street in Montego Bay, and was on her way to work, when Williams grabbed her. She testified that he held her by the hand and pulled her across the street to her workplace.

Williams then punched her to the face, upper body and the side of her head. Brown hit him twice with her umbrella in retaliation, began screaming, and a groundskeeper came to her assistance. Williams fled the scene with Brown's umbrella and handbag.

Brown told the court that they had broken up two weeks prior to the altercation. According to her, Williams called her workplace the day after the incident and threatened her. He attacked her again later that evening, at which time she used pepper spray on him.

In representing himself, Williams suggested to Brown that their relationship had not ended. He had merely pushed her, and that they had scheduled a meeting on November 5, 2010. Brown denied these claims.

"If we were meeting, I would not have had to use a pepper spray; you attacked me," Brown told him.

"Can you recall telling me that you could get acid in the pharmacy to burn me?" Williams asked.

"The pharmacy doesn't sell acid, Mr Williams," Brown responded tartly.

Investigating officer Corporal Silvern Grant testified that on November 4, 2010 Brown came to the Barnett Street police station with bruises on her face and upper body, and was given a letter to seek medical attention.

In handing down the verdict, RM Tai said she did not doubt Brown's account of how she had sustained her injuries.

"According to you, all you did was push her. That cannot be, because she could not have gotten her injuries just from you pushing her," the judge commented. "You treated her like a dog. Some people would not even treat an animal like that."