St Peter man sentenced for harming wife, daughters a decade ago

High Court Judge Randall Worrell has advised that it may be best for some people who are involved in domestic situations to simply leave and walk away.

He made the remark as he ordered St Peter man Horace Everton Burgess to serve a combination sentence of time in jail and payment of thousands of dollars in compensation for his “violent and vicious” cutlass attack on his wife and daughters back in August 2010.

“Sometimes leaving, turning away; going away; may be the best thing for a person to do,” the judge said during a virtual sitting on his No. 2 Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Burgess, of Maynards Development, had pleaded guilty to unlawfully causing serious bodily harm to his wife Audrey, with intent to do her serious bodily harm, or to maim, disfigure or disable her on August 17, 2010.

The convicted man, who is represented by Queen’s Counsel Andrew Pilgrim, also admitted to unlawfully and maliciously inflicting serious bodily harm on his daughters Jamila and Janaye that day.

Burgess, who was 54 at the time, had accused his then 47-year-old wife of being involved in an intimate relationship with another man and also accused his daughters of encouraging their mother.

Justice Worrell declared: “It is a sad situation in that although there may have been a protection order in respect of the same household earlier, it is sad that you did not leave that household . . . .There comes a time . . . if one is saying enough is enough, one leaves. Whether there was infidelity or not it is not something that you take into your own hands and in such a violent way, especially when you have written that ‘today is the end’.

“In other words your life and the life of those involved, everyone’s life was threatened, and theirs more so than yours, even if you were going to take your life at some stage that is not the approach.

“Against the background of there being an earlier protection order you should have left the residence and you would not have found yourself in the predicament which you find yourself today and neither would your wife nor daughters, would they have experienced such a violent and traumatic act.”

Based on the facts, the judge said “it seemed the only thing that triggered all of this on that day was the ringing of that telephone, whereby your wife unlocked her door and went out to answer the phone and everything else unfolded”.

Although Burgess, who is now in his 60s had a previously clean record and his actions had been deemed as being out of character, Justice Worrell said: “It cannot be that there is going to be a slap on the wrist for these types of matters or that the production of a medical report evidencing your severe hypertension would give you a ticket out of a custodial sentence.”

Taking into consideration the mitigating and aggravating factors of the crimes, Justice Worrell imposed a six year starting sentence for the offence committed against his wife Audrey. After the one-third discount for his guilty plea and other credits were deducted the convicted man was left with 974 days.

A compensation order was also made for him to pay his wife $10,000.  Based on that order a further one third discount was given on the 974 days leaving Burgess – who at this point was in tears as a male family member tried to console him – with 650 days to serve in prison.

For the offences involving his daughters, three-year starting sentences were imposed and following deductions, including his guilty pleas, he was left with 487 days.

In respect of Jamila Burgess, a compensation order was made in the sum of $7,500 and $5,000 for Janaye Burgess. Those compensation orders also resulted in a further one third discount on each count leaving the convicted father 325 days in prison to run concurrently to the first offence involving his wife.

The monies must be paid within three months of today’s date.

“This is a matter that one could only hope will deter in the future, not only yourself, but others who find themselves in similar situations and meet out violent, vicious attacks on persons living within the household,” Justice Worrell said as he also ordered that Burgess take anger management classes while serving his sentence.

Since the matter was conducted via Zoom given that there are no in-person trials at the court due the outbreak in COVID-19 cases in the country, Burgess was ordered to present himself to the Supreme Court complex on Friday where he will be turned over to prison officials.

“I can’t make that. . .” Burgess could be heard saying as he cried and was consoled by a male relative.