Double trouble

Marlon Terry Martyr, a 32-year-old technician from September Square, St Matthias, Christ Church, admitted to a Bridgetown court that he intentionally damaged a woman’s cell phone on Thursday night, while at the Princess Alice Bus Terminal.

Meanwhile the same woman, Janet Eileen Thompson, a cook from Collins Road, St Peter, pleaded guilty to assaulting Martyr minutes later. Both appeared side-by-side before Magistrate Douglas Frederick earlier today.

Janet Eileen Thompson and Marlon Terry Martyr

According to Station Sergeant Carrison Henry, police were on patrol in the area close to midnight on Thursday when they were stopped. They got out and soon after interviewed Thompson, who complained that Martyr damaged her phone while she was taping a fight. It was while speaking to both of them that Thompson reached over and hit Martyr in the chest right in front of the officers, which caused him to shout: “I want she charged.”

Giving the court his account of what happened, Martyr first apologized “for the mistake” but said he was upset that a fight was going on and everyone was observing rather than intervening.

“Them shoulda stop the other girl from getting beat ‘cause she ain’t really no fighter,” he explained, “Everybody standing up there and watching the girl get beat.”

Martyr told the court that at first the fight was not his business. He said he was sitting “high up” but after a while he got up to make his way to the scene and that was when he stumbled and accidentally pushed Thompson.

“De phone get damage because she was holding it at the time recording the girl… and that fight come about over a man,” he added.

After he left the scene, police came up beside him and asked to speak to him. During the interview, Thompson hit him in his chest “just so,” he said.

But Thompson was adamant that was not what happened at all. “He came up behind me and snatched the phone out o’ my hand.” 

“But he just told me he stumbled on you,” Magistrate Frederick interjected.

“No he did not Sir. I was recording the fight so I could show one of the ladies afterwards. I ain’t had no data nor I wasn’t planning to put it on Facebook nor nothing so,” she added.

“So you find it interesting to record things like that?” Frederick continued.

“Yes, sometimes. Sir, people does record things all the time. I don’t see it is a crime.”

Asked about how she came to hit Martyr, she explained that “he was telling the police a lot of lies and I was angry at the time. So I tap he in he chest with the phone.”

“When people are angry they don’t tap,” the magistrate responded. “You gave him a good thump in his chest. And he didn’t stumble on you. Everybody is trying to soften up their side.”

“Well I ain’t tap he then; I hit he,” Thompson agreed.

In speaking to the pair, Magistrate Frederick remarked: “She has the right to record anything, as long as she is not malicious with it. It is not nice to record things like that, although at times it can be helpful to the police.”

He then asked Thompson to find out whether the phone can be fixed, in which case Martyr will have to pay for that to be done. if it cannot be fixed he will have to replace the phone.

The matter was adjourned until February 22 when both return to court for sentencing. They were each released on $1,000 bail.