East Ruimveldt Housing Scheme resident Edmond Allen, accused of wounding and assaulting a mother and her young daughter after being confronted about his garbage dumping, was yesterday granted bail when he appeared before the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.
Allen, 51, denied that on April 1, he grievously harmed the school-aged daughter of Jenny Mayers. He also denied that, on the very date, he unlawfully assaulted Mayers.
According to Prosecutor Michael Grant, the altercation had its genesis in an argument between Mayers and Allen. The man had allegedly thrown garbage near the 31-year-old woman’s plants, prompting her to angrily confront him.
During the argument, Grant said, the woman’s daughter approached and became an apparent victim of circumstance when Allen lashed her to the right arm with a piece of wood. The Prosecutor added that Allen then hit Mayers with a spade.
In retaliation, Mayers threw an object at her accused attacker. However, she missed and instead hit and broke a window of Allen’s home.
The woman was charged with maliciously damaging the $1,000 window and denied the allegation when she was allowed to plead.
However, Allen’s representative, attorney-at-law Paul Fung-A-Fat, refuted the prosecutor’s claims, instead insisting that his client was the victim and not the attacker.
According to Fung-A-Fat, Allen, a labourer, had been digging a drain and had been throwing the dug muck near Mayers’ plants when the woman’s daughter ran up to him, brandishing a spade and a cutlass.
Allen, the lawyer said, had simply been protecting himself. However, Fung-A-Fat failed to mention exactly how his client had protected himself.
After requesting reasonable bail, Fung-A-Fat claimed that he had received reports that the allegedly attacked girl had been seen playing, arm fully functional, at her home and had only donned her uniform and cast to garner sympathy from the courts.
In Mayers’ corner, attorney-at-law George Thomas also made a request for reasonable bail, explaining that his client was a mother of three minor children. Though he admitted that Mayers was a businesswoman, he pointed out that she had the major responsibility of caring for her children. He also emphasized that his client and had not been armed in any way and that there were no indications that the woman was a flight risk.
After deliberating, Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry granted Allen bail in the sum of $125,000: $100,000 for the inflicting grievous bodily harm charge and the remaining figure for his assault charge.
The feuding neighbours will make their next appearance on April 20.
