“If you are being abused, battered, beaten or threatened [then you ought to] think seriously about that relationship.”
That was the advice which Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant gave to a woman who decided against pursuing a domestic violence case against her ex-boyfriend
earlier today.
Ramon Akeem Doyle had pleaded guilty to unlawfully assaulting Gabrielle Scantlebury on Sunday.
Police prosecutor, Sergeant Janice Ifill, told the court that the two had quarrelled over a SIM card belonging to the woman, whom Doyle eventually held by the throat and pushed on to the floor.
The Leinster Road, Waterford, St Michael man explained that Scantlebury raised her hand at him first and he blocked the lash and “moved her from in front of me”.
“No injuries were made to the body,” he said.
When the complainant came to the witness stand, Doyle apologized to her, saying “What I did was inappropriate at the time”.
The woman also told the court that she had something to say. She recounted that after the incident, she ran to the police station with a child in her arms with Doyle chasing and threatening her.
Even after she entered the station, he ran inside behind her, she said.
Scantlebury also said that she asked the police officers for time to decide whether she wanted him to be charged or not but since she had already signed a document, she was told that she would have to let the court know that.
Today she asked the court “to warn him”.
“Are you serious? You’re not serious,” Magistrate Cuffy-Sargeant replied.
“You are not cattle, not a thing, not a piece of furniture,” the Magistrate reminded Scantlebury, “and anytime he is laying his hands on you, it should be in a gentle manner”.
“The police were right in telling you what they told you . . . if that is the way your relationship is going. When you are serious, you can come back to court for a protection order before something serious happens,” Cuffy-Sargeant concluded.
The matter was dismissed.