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FOOD FIGHT: Argument started over garlic

A JAMAICAN man who beat the mother of his child and scraped her face with a cigarette lighter because she did not cook dinner, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court on Friday (July 15).

The court was told that on July 5, Favian Davis brought home some grocery and asked the complainant, Wendy Appleton, to cook. It is believed that when she asked him to purchase some garlic, he began to curse her.

Further allegations are that Appleton went to watch television a few minutes later, but the 29-year-old came into the room and demanded to know why she had not started cooking.

He allegedly hit her in the face with a vase stand, causing bruising and swelling. They had a subsequent argument during which he scraped her face with a lighter.

It was further revealed that the next day during another argument, Davis grabbed Appleton by the neck, lifted her in the air, and hit her on the left ear.

The police were summoned, and under caution Davis said: "Officer, a little argument we had and it got out of hand."

Davis told Resident Magistrate (RM) Carolyn Tai that he had nothing to eat the day before the first incident, and that he had spent all day seeking food items for the family. He said that he became upset when his child complained of hunger after he had taken home the food for Appleton to cook.

Davis also said that injuring Appleton with the lighter was an accident, and denied that he held her by the neck during the next day's argument.

"Even if it happened the way you say it happened, you are very wrong, and you don't seem to get that," RM Tai scolded Davis, before ordering him to submit his fingerprints to the police.