Shawn Hopkinson and Coretta Hopkinson were yesterday advised to seek counselling when they appeared before Magistrate Hazel Octave-Hamilton in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court accused of assaulting each other.
The court heard that the Hopkinsons on May 26 at Meadow Brook Gardens unlawfully assaulted each other. They both pled guilty to the charges. According to the facts of the charge read by Prosecutor Police Corporal Simone Payne, the defendants are husband and wife. On the day in question at about midnight Mrs. Hopkinson went to her husband and asked for the vehicle keys which he refused to handover. She then grabbed his hand and he became annoyed.
He reported the matter to the East La Penitence Police Station and his wife was arrested and taken to the station where a confrontation was held between the two parties and she was charged with the present offence. However prior to his report to the police station he had slapped her at their home.
The magistrate after hearing this remarked that this was a silly, simple matter and she found it very amusing.
Her comment was acknowledged as correct by Mrs. Hopkinson who asked to explain what had transpired. She said that she was not arrested and the magistrate was correct in her statement that it was a silly misunderstanding. She related that it stemmed from a family versus relative issue that is ongoing and her husband had loaned out the family car to a relative of his without consulting her first. She then requested the key for the vehicle and this sparked the argument with him. However contrary to the police report she was actually the one who made the report which was followed by her husband’s report.
The magistrate questioned whether alcohol played a part in the dispute and Mrs. Hopkinson said that she does not think it did.
The magistrate concluded that the incident was as a result of a lack of communication and in her discretion she believed that the best thing for the couple was for them to seek counseling and she so advised them.
The two were reprimanded and discharged but sternly warned not to appear in the court again.
