Store employee pleads guilty to assault

A Montego Bay store employee who punched a co-worker in her face during a dispute is to return to the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court for sentencing on November 30.

Eighteen-year-old O'Shane Lynch pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm against Charmaine Johnson when he appeared in court on Tuesday.

The court was told that, on October 6, Lynch and Johnson were at work at the Cash Mart Store on Barnett Street, in Montego Bay, when an argument developed between them. During the quarrel, Lynch punched Johnson several times in her face.

"Why did you do that, sir?" Resident Magistrate Sandria Wong-Small asked the defendant.

"She (Johnson) was provoking me, cursing indecent language and disrespecting me," Lynch told the court.

"And that is how you deal with it, sir?" Wong-Small asked Lynch disapprovingly.

"I didn't want to do it, but I got upset and hit her," said Lynch.

In addressing the court, Johnson said the argument began when she was going on a break.

"I was going to the bathroom and he was at the bathroom doorway, and he saw me and threw down the key and locked the door. I said, "You must be a b...man" and I took up the key and went into the bathroom," Johnson explained.

"I came out and did the same thing to him, I locked the door, and him say him was going to lick me. I said, "You can't lick me" and he held up his fist," added Johnson.

"Are both of you still working there or were you fired?" RM Wong-Small asked the disputing duo.

"They said we have to work it out," said Lynch.

"Are you interested in working it out?" the magistrate asked Johnson.

"No, miss, because he could have killed me," replied Johnson.

Lynch was ordered to submit his fingerprints to the police and to return to court on November 30, at which time a social-enquiry report is to be prepared to assist in determining his sentence.