The allegation against Ganesh Niles is that on December 2 at Georgetown, he unlawfully and maliciously wounded Portia Mannie. The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charge of unlawful wounding when it was read to him.
Prosecutor Stephen Telford told the court that the man who has a history of abusing the woman had been placed before the court for matters of a similar nature on countless previous occasions.
According to Telford when the present incident occurred, the defendant was on bail on another charge of abusing Mannie.
The court heard from the prosecutor that on the day of the incident, the virtual complainant had severed the relationship; a move that angered the accused. According to Telford, Niles requested that the two reconcile. After the woman refused, the court heard, the man became enraged and reached for a knife he was carrying in his pocket and slashed the complainant on her hand.
When given a chance to speak, the visibly fearful woman related to the court that she had been beaten by her reputed husband on many occasions.
Attorney-at-law James Bond who represented the defendant told the court that his client was innocent.
According to Bond the two who have a two-year-old child have been having problems for some time now but at no time did his client ever abuse the complainant. The lawyer told the court that the issue had its genesis in an old grievance. According to him the two had bought a vehicle and because it was not in the woman’s name, she became angry and has since been making false accusations against his client.
In requesting that he be denied his pretrial liberty, the prosecution said that the man had a long record of abusing the woman, and society is currently plagued with this serious and prevalent offence.
The prosecution stressed too that the court needed to take into consideration that the man has similar pending matters before the Providence Magistrates’ Court.
Niles was remanded to prison and ordered to return to court on December 10.
