Domestic dispute

A 43-year-old man has been remanded to Dodds until next month pending sentencing for wounding his partner.

Cedric McCartney Lynch of Passage Garden, Passage Road, St Michael appeared before Acting Magistrate Jared Richards on Monday and admitted to unlawfully and maliciously wounding Jakia Blunt on October 7.

“Yes, she get bruises and I plead guilty for that . . . ,” he told the court.

Relaying what happened that led to Lynch being charged, prosecuting Sergeant Verdon Forde told the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court the two had been in a relationship for the past eight years.

On the mentioned day, Lynch came home to their rented room, closed the door and refused to allow the woman to leave.

An argument ensued and an angry Lynch hit Blunt in her face and head. She shouted for him to stop but, according to the prosecutor, he continued and then placed his hands around her neck and squeezed before releasing her, pushing her onto the bed.

Someone from another room shouted for Lynch to stop his behaviour, distracting him, and it was then that Blunt took the opportunity to contact the police.

In his explanation to the court, Lynch said not everything the prosecutor had stated was correct.

He admitted that he “had a little to drink” on the day and when he went home, Blunt refused to let him in and kept telling him about a friend from the past.

When asked whether he thought it was right to fight with a woman, Lynch replied: “It is not right, Sir. But Sir, at the end of the day, women does fight . . . . I don’t mind quarrelling but the same way you hit me, I will hit you back.”

“I don’t go nowhere, I don’t have no cellular phone. Any phone calls I got to deal with she. Everything does come through to she phone . . . ,” he said.

Lynch said he had no one to sign bail for him as he had not committed numbers to memory.

The prosecution objected to bail, however, on the grounds that Lynch  appeared in another court in April on a similar charge involving the same virtual complainant. He also has prior convictions.

Lynch admitted that he had been convicted for theft and drugs.

When he was informed that he would be remanded until November 7, he told the court: “I suppose to get vacation from work in November.”

“I giving you vacation now!” Magistrate Richards replied.

When Lynch returns next month, Blunt is expected to address the court.