Andre Robertson, the man who allegedly chopped his common-law wife about her body last Friday and then proceeded to stab himself with a knife, appeared before a city court yesterday to answer to a wounding charge.
Robertson, 40, was charged with unlawfully and maliciously wounding Denise Fredericks on October 23rd at Roxanne Burnham Gardens, with the intent to maim, disfigure, disable or cause her grievous bodily harm.
Robertson, who gave his occupation as a construction worker, pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The prosecution’s case is that the couple had gotten into an argument over a pair of slippers. It was stated that as the woman was dressing to leave for work, the accused dealt her a chop to her hand and then stabbed himself in the stomach. The prosecution also claimed that Robertson admitted to the police that he had chopped Fredericks.
However, Fredericks, who was present in court wearing bandages, informed the magistrate that the prosecution’s facts were not what she had submitted in her statement to the police.
Stabroek News had previously reported that the victim, a newspaper vendor, had sustained chops to her head, face and hands after Robertson—who was allegedly drunk at the time— attacked her with a cutlass.
Fredericks told Stabroek News that last Friday she had just left a newspaper outlet where she purchases newspapers to sell, when Robertson approached her and asked why she was treating him in that manner. When she asked what he was talking about, rather than respond, the accused pulled out a cutlass and began firing it at her.
The woman had also reported that after persons ran to her rescue, the defendant proclaimed that he would kill himself and then proceeded to stab himself in the abdomen and throat.
The couple were said to have shared an abusive relationship for years.
Magistrate Fabayo Azore ordered Robertson to be remanded and the matter has been adjourned to November 5th.
