‘Horned’ husband to be sentenced in January

A man was today found guilty of burning down his own house after things went downhill in a failed marriage that included some “entanglements”. It was a case in which a prosecutor said “men need to learn to take a horn”.

Michael Terrance Gilkes of Eckstein Village, Tudor Bridge, St Michael had been charged with damaging his house by fire  on February 16, 2015 and destroying the contents which belonged to him and his now ex-wife Karen Wilson-Jemmott.

Senior Crown Counsel Oliver Thomas and Crown Counsels Joyann Catwell and Keith Robertson prosecuted the matter while Silbert Cadogan and Akeila Reid appeared for the defence.

The jurors went to deliberate at about 12:17 p.m. and returned at 1:40p.m.

During Catwell’s opening address she said that the matter “came out of an estranged marital relationship”. Gilkes and his wife had been married for 25 years and had three boys.

Along the way, according to the prosecutor, the two had “entanglements” meaning each had other persons in their lives. Gilkes, however, “couldn’t handle that his wife was talking to a friend he knew”.

“Men need to learn to take a horn,” Catwell said in her address.

According to the prosecution, Gilkes admitted he was hurting saying “Karen started to deal with this guy that I thought was a family friend and it was always a quarrel between myself and Karen because this guy was always disrespecting me at my house.”

Given everything that was happening in the relationship, Gilkes got matches and lit the house.

In the ex-wife’s evidence, she admitted that she and Gilkes were having issues and she took court action against him in relation to a specific matter. She said her then husband told her ‘if he can’t live in the house…he know good enough wuh he gine do with it’.

The next month, she said, “the house was gone”. She recalled getting a call when she was at work saying the house was burning and she broke down in tears.

Justice Christopher Birch remanded Gilkes until January 18, 2021 for sentencing.