After receiving a presentencing report on a 54-year-old carpenter who beat his wife and threatened to cut her up, Magistrate Douglas Frederick acted upon the probation officer’s recommendations and remanded the man to the Psychiatric Hospital.
Derek Wong of #5 Free Hill, Black Rock, St Michael returns to court on August 10. He pleaded guilty in May to assaulting his wife and using the words “I gine stab you in you neck” and “I would cut you up and no-one would hear you.”
The District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court heard on that occasion that Wong drinks alcohol excessively and as a result, has at times been physically and verbally abusive to his wife during their 10-year marriage.
On May 30, Wong beat his wife by cuffing her in the head before making his way to the kitchen where he grabbed a knife and threatened the woman. This was done in the presence of one of their sons, who held on to his mother in an effort to protect her.
When she began screaming, her eldest child came out of his room and he too intervened in an effort to get Wong to stop. She then went to a neighbour’s house and reported the matter to the police. When Wong returned to court today, he explained that one of his issues is that he does not want his wife to work so he “puts the money there.”
“But this behaviour can’t work in 2015,” Magistrate Frederick explained. “Women are going out to work because they want to be independent. More of them may be working now than men,” Frederick added. He also warned Wong that his children “are growing up.”