No watch, no breach

Kent Darnell Placido Hall is of the view that he is not guilty of breaching this island’s COVID-19 curfew last Saturday because he “didn’t have a watch”.

The No 440 14th Avenue West Terrace, St James resident, who was dressed in a wet suit, entered the plea before Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes this afternoon.

He is alleged to have contravened Paragraph 1, Subparagraph (3) of the Emergency Management COVID-19 Protocols Special Curfew No. 2 Directive 2021 by failing to comply with the order that he does not leave his home between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. when he is not an employee or a member of the essential services or a person who had an emergency.

“All I can tell you is that I ain’t have no watch. So if . . . the people that hold me had a watch and they tell you that I pass 9 o’clock I can’t argue because I ain’t had no watch,” Hall explained when asked whether he was guilty of the charge.

“All I asking is what the penalties are? I left by my grandmother minutes to six and I had to walk from the bottom of St James all the way to West Terrace. I ain’t had no busfare. I had a bicycle and the bicycle chain come off. I didn’t even ride the bicycle,” he continued.

He was asked again by the Chief Magistrate whether he was guilty or not guilty of the charge levelled against him.

He answered, “Not guilty . . . I didn’t have no watch.”

Weekes then informed him that the court had been told that there were also a number of warrants out for his arrest from the Holetown jurisdiction. He reportedly failed to appear in court from last year.

Hall however claimed that the last time he went to court in that jurisdiction he was told that “everything clear”.

He was remanded to reappear on February 22 before the No. 1 District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court on the breach of curfew charge. Before that he will appear before the Holetown Magistrates’ Court on January 29 on the warrant matters.