No bail for student accused of Community College stabbing

Insisting that violence in schools must be taken seriously, a court prosecutor successfully opposed bail for a 20-year-old student charged in connection with last week’s stabbing incident at the Barbados Community College (BCC), which left another student hospitalised.

Shelton Dewayne Milton Blackman, of Denton Road, Grazettes, St Michael, was remanded to Dodds Prison when he appeared in the No. 1 District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court before Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes on Monday.

He is accused of causing serious bodily harm to Whiniki Morris-Buntin with intent to maim, disfigure, or disable him on February 5. He was not required to plead to the indictable offence.

Vociferously objecting to Blackman being granted bail, court prosecutor Sergeant Randolph Boyce told the Bridgetown court that instances of violence within schools must be taken seriously.

He said: “We are concerned about public order and public safety…. The reality is the school system is an institution where learning must take place, where people send their children, where they believe there is safety, and where this type of thing should not happen. There has been a public outcry in the past at various schools in terms of security at the schools and instances involving schoolchildren causing grave concern, and if he gets bail, it will be a shock to the psyche of parents of this nation. We do not believe that this young man is a good candidate for bail at this time.”

Attorney-at-law Andrew Willoughby, who argued for Blackman’s release on bail, told the court that his client voluntarily turned himself in to the police after the alleged incident, had a fixed place of abode, had no previous convictions, and was employed.

“This is not a matter where he is being tried at this point in time; that will happen at a later date. Regarding the matter of public order and safety, several things happen on the island in relation to alleged fighting. This is not anything that the court should hold as gospel, because this is not the day of reckoning,” the defence attorney said, suggesting that the court could place stringent bail conditions on him.

However, the chief magistrate opted not to give Blackman his pre-trial liberty at this time.

Remanding him to prison until March 10, he said: “It is a grave allegation in the context, and this is what we always have to look at, and at this time, the court will not exercise its discretion in his favour.”