Christianburg Magistrate Ann McLennan sounded a caution to persons who commit domestic violence in her jurisdiction even as she dismissed a case against a man accused of threatening to kill a woman.
“We have a heightened domestic violence era and when you talk about death, it’s like you’re talking about a bomb in an aircraft. You have to go to jail,” she told the Christianburg Magistrate’s Court.
Patrick Pears appeared in court on Tuesday charged with using threatening language.
The virtual complainant, Bobita Pears, of 54 Nottinghamshire, Upper Demerara, told the court that she did not want to give evidence against the accused since she wanted the court matter to be dropped.
However, the magistrate insisted that the virtual complainant inform the court of what transpired on Friday May 31, when the accused allegedly made use of threatening language against her at Nottinghamshire.
Pears said she and Patrick had an argument during which he threatened to kill her.
In his explanation, the defendant, who gave the same address as the virtual complainant, said he did not threaten to kill her, rather he said that she would die before him.
The magistrate placed the defendant on a 12-month bond to keep the peace or the alternative of six months jail.
Earlier, Magistrate McLennan heard a similar case brought against 23-year-old Henry Spencer, a taxi driver who was charged with using abusive language against his sister- in-law, 23-year-old Romona Stellingburg, of Lower Kara Kara.
Stellingburg told the court that she had decided not to give evidence against the defendant because he was her brother-in-law and her sister has a young child with him.
The magistrate insisted on hearing details about the abusive language charge and was told by the prosecuting officer, Inspector Oswald Pitt, what Spencer had said.
When the magistrate questioned Spencer about what he had said to Stellingburg, he said that he could not remember “what played out” on the night in question. He said he and the virtual complainant “had a talking” but he could not remember details of the matter.
Stellingburg said that he had accused her of “talking his name.”
The magistrate informed Spencer that she could put him in a place for a while that would cause him to remember what he had forgotten. She then dismissed the case and bonded Spencer to keep the peace for 12 months in default of which he would serve a four-month prison sentence. (Jeff Trotman)
