It was a story of love, betrayal, deception and a child born out of wedlock.
Although it sounds like a script from a Hollywood movie, it refers to the facts of a case, which ended up before the law courts earlier today.
A woman confessed that she hit and shoved her husband’s former lover on November 26 after she saw her in a City car park.
According to Station Sergeant Neville Watson, the accused – who is the wife of the man at the centre of the chaos – and the complainant have been at loggerheads for some time over “a man that stands between them”. That man is the husband of the perpetrator and father to the complainant’s child.
While the outside woman was tending to her groceries in the car park, the wife came up to her, poked her in the face and shoved her by the shoulder. The wife also attempted to hit her with a broomstick but security at Shop Smart and an off-duty policeman intervened and prevented it.
The wife, Kereen Gay-McClean, 43, of Cane Garden Park, St Thomas, was arrested and charged with unlawfully assaulting the woman.
When Magistrate Douglas Frederick gave the wife the chance to speak this morning, she told the court that it was “not about the child nor my husband” but more about the “disrespect that comes with it”.
The wife explained to the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court that she and the complainant were very good friends. The wife, who is Jamaican, said the complainant used to come to her home and pretend to be her friend but she really came “to break up my marriage”. She said when she suspected something was happening between her husband and the woman, she “cuss her out” but continues to feel very betrayed by her.
At that point the magistrate intervened and pointed out to the wife that her husband “made a decision on his own. The woman just didn’t fly on to your husband and have an affair with him so don’t give her all of the blame. Your husband is an adult so he is also at fault,” Magistrate Frederick said.
The wife then added that it has been “over two years this thing burning me . . . . . She was my best friend – the only friend I had here. She should have never friend me,” the wife said.
“If you know you come to friend me with a motive, stay away . . . I loved this girl more than how I loved my sister; that is what hurt me,” the wife explained.
“I have nothing against the child Sir, but it is how I feel.”
She also said there have been other women in her husband’s life but they never entered her home.
The magistrate also wanted to hear from the complainant who was present in court. She explained that she and the man were friends “before the wife even came into the picture”. At the time they became involved, the witness said she told him she did not want to come between he and his wife but he assured her that he was separated. He and the woman have an 18-month-old child.
She added that last year the wife called and cursed her “in the worst way”, along with calling her workplace and her mother. It was then that she confronted the man and he confessed that he and his wife were not completely over. She therefore ended the relationship.
“I feel like Dr Phil,” Magistrate Frederick remarked, as he summoned the man into court at the wife’s request.
The husband corroborated what the mother of his child said and admitted that when he told her his marriage was over, it was not.
The magistrate thanked him for coming and bringing what he hoped would be some type of closure for the wife, who was insisting that the woman was at fault. He also advised her to get counselling since she seemed to not be completely over the situation.
Magistrate Frederick then placed the wife on a bond to keep the peace for one year; if she breaches it, she will face three months in jail.