News

12 months hard labour for assaulting teen

By TASHIEKA MAIR, Star Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

A MAN WHO pleaded guilty to assaulting a teenage girl was last Wednesday sentenced to 12 months imprisonment at hard labour when he appeared in the Montego Bay RM court.

Kingsley Grey, 28, was charged with assault occasioning bodily harm and indecent assault.

He also confessed to Resident Magistrate Wilson Smith that this was not his first conviction. He served two years in prison for larceny.

It is alleged that on Saturday, August 13, the complainant, who sells in the Charles Gordon market in Montego Bay, St. James, was at her cart when Grey approached her. He allegedly squeezed her breasts and walked away. Her later returned and tried to take a bag containing money, from her. When she tried to defend herself, she was kicked by the accused. The girl in turn used an onion to hit the accused.

Grey, however, insists that he was trying to pass through a narrow space in the market when his hand brushed against the girl's bosom. He also said he hit the complainant after he was hit by an onion. However RM Smith did not buy his story.

"Your Honour to be honest wid yu Your Honour please, mi serve two years ah prison fi thief in '98, and ah no waan go back deh," Grey pleaded with the RM.

"You don't want to go back there and this is how you behave." RM Smith said sternly.

He was sentenced to 12 months at hard labour on the charge of indecent assault and six months at hard labour for the assault occasioning bodily harm charge. Both sentences will run concurrently.