A North Sophia man is now awaiting sentencing after he admitted assaulting his wife during a row.
Theron Arnold Perreira, 27, admitted hitting his wife, Kamini Lall, but he said that he was provoked and that he used a blackboard ruler, not a cutlass as was claimed in the assault charge read against him yesterday.
He was placed on $25,000 bail, bonded to keep the peace and ordered to remove from the shared home, while a probation report was ordered for sentencing.
Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry, at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court One, heard that on October 24, Perreira assaulted Lall at their home in North Sophia.
According to Prosecutor Michael Grant, Perreira and Lall had a misunderstanding, after which the man took a cutlass and dealt his wife two lashes, one to her left hand and the other to her upper back. The matter was reported and Perreira was later arrested.
However, Perreira entered a plea of guilty with explanation. He told the court that the row was about how late Lall was returning home, since she was not there to receive his son when he was taken home.
The man claimed that Lall then spat on his face, after which he hit her with a blackboard ruler. She then threw a belna at him but missed, then a teapot containing water though it was not hot, Perreira told the court. He said he then dealt her the second lash, after which he left the house to go on the road to cool down. On his way out on the road, he said, he saw a police officer and reported the incident, after which he was arrested.
Lall, who was advised by the court to seek protection under the Domestic Violence Act, said that she lived with Perreira and her two children, one of whom was fathered by him. She complained that Perreira does not work and as a result she alone bears the burden of providing for the family. “All he do is watch TV all day,” the woman told the court. She added, “I does be the only one working to maintain them because I want to make peace I don’t want problems, but it’s really hard on me.”
Lall further explained that her husband normally takes her son over to his ex-wife’s home, which she dislikes. She questioned how he would feel if she did something of that sort to him.
Perreira was granted bail on the condition that he move from the Sophia home he shares with Lall to another address he gave the court until the matter is ended. In addition to being bonded to keep the peace, he was also ordered to attend counselling with the Help & Shelter. He is to return to court on November 15 for sentencing.
