Magistrate Hazel Octave-Hamilton yesterday remanded a man accused of assaulting his wife, drenching their matrimonial home with gasoline and threatening to set it alight with her inside.
Navindranauth Ramcharran Sookraj was remanded to prison after being charged with two counts of assaulting his wife, using abusive language towards her and attempting to commit suicide.
Sookraj, 24, of 54 North Sophia denied that on August 9 and August 10, at Sophia, that he unlawfully assaulted Stephanie Sue. He denied too that on July 22 and August 10, respectively, he made use of threatening behaviour and abusive language to Sue, resulting in a breach of the peace.
Finally, the grass cutter pleaded not guilty to the charge which stated that on July 22, he attempted to commit suicide.
Attorney Adrian Thompson made an unsuccessful bail application for Sookraj.
When asked about the alleged threat the defendant made towards his wife, Police Corporal Venetta Pindar told the court that the accused “threw gasoline in his house and threatened to burn it down while his wife was inside.”
In a desperate bid to secure his client’s pre-trial liberty, Thompson said that his client can remove from the home he shares with his wife at Sophia to his mother’s Belle Vue West Bank Demerara residence.
The court was, however, told by the prosecution that the accused is a “spurned lover at this time” and, if granted bail, he may interfere with Sue, even though he has indicated his willingness to move to an alternative address.
In his fight for bail, the attorney advanced that it was the first time that his client had been before the courts and that he would undertake to keep the peace during the continuance of the matter and he was prepared to “have no contact with [Sue].”
Thompson said that Sue is the source of the marital problems his client has been enduring but stated that the specifics of the case will be ventilated at the trial.
After listening to both the prosecution and defence, the Magistrate told the court that the allegations before her show a repetitive pattern. “It’s not a case where all these things just happened on the same day; it shows a pattern and that’s my concern,” the Magistrate strongly pointed out.
For this reason she informed counsel that his client will be remanded to prison. The matters were transferred to Court One for October 24.
