Brother admits to cutlass threat due to row

A St Michael labourer who pulled a cutlass on his brother told the District ‘A’ Traffic Court that he did so only after the man threatened him with a pair of scissors and a rock.

Admitting to brandishing the weapon, Samuel Stephen Kenny Fitzherbert Worrell, 38, pleaded guilty to using threatening words towards John Williams — “I would kill you. Your days are numbered. I gine hunt you down” — intending to cause him to believe that immediate unlawful violence would be used against him on December 23. He also admitted to assaulting Williams.

The two brothers are not on good terms, the court heard. The complainant was riding along a track at Yearwoods Road in Black Rock when he saw the accused, who verbally threatened him and pulled a cutlass from his backpack. The complainant dismounted and armed himself with a rock, and the accused walked behind him, swinging the cutlass. The complainant left the area and reported the matter to the police.

But Worrell told the court that he was walking through the track when he saw his relative and called him by a derogatory name. He stated that at that time, Williams “drop the bicycle, pull out of a scissors and took up rocks in he next hand, and that is when I pull out my cutlass”. He said he uses the cutlass to clean up around people’s properties.

Magistrate Alison Burke convicted, reprimanded and discharged him for using threatening words. Worrell, who has nine previous convictions — six of them similar in nature — was placed on a one-year bond to keep the peace.

“If breached, you will have to pay $1 000 forthwith or spend six months in jail,” Burke ordered. “And when you see your brother, try to stay as far away from him as possible.”