Mapp pleads guilty to assaulting girlfriend

A 35-year-old man who admitted to assaulting his girlfriend on two occasions was remanded to Dodds until Friday, after he had no surety to sign bail on his behalf.

Romell Chesterfield Mapp, of Chelston Avenue Culloden Road, St Michael, pleaded guilty before Magistrate Kim Butcher to committing the offences against Andrea Francis on March 5 and on June 8, causing her bodily harm.

Station Sergeant Randolph Boyce told the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court that the two have been in an intimate relationship for the past three years.

On March 5, Mapp beat Francis about her body when they got into an argument in the bedroom.

On June 8, he accosted the woman in the bedroom and when she threatened to call police he began to choke her. Francis grabbed at Mapp’s dreadlocks and pulled in an effort to free herself but Mapp placed his elbow on her neck. According to the prosecutor, the man then grabbed her right hand and proceeded to bend her thumb, causing her to let go of his hair.

The matter was reported to police and Mapp was arrested and charged.

In explaining his actions, he told the magistrate that not everything stated by the prosecutor was true, but “whatever damages that would have come from her neck would have come from my hand”.

He added: “She is a woman that has stress issues. Whenever I got to visit my daughter, it could be dominoes, it does be a woman involved, that is why the argument got so heated . . . . She started back this thing that I had a lady in the place. I ain’t beat no woman, we had a scuffle. I was not choking anybody, this was something that come out in the heat of the moment.”

The prosecutor said while he had no objections to bail pending sentencing, the accused would have to find alternative living arrangements for the time being and someone to sign bail on his behalf.

However, Mapp told the court he was unable to recall any numbers since all were in his cellular phone directory.