Kitty man remanded on charge of assaulting wife, son with cutlass

-complainant doesn’t want to pursue matter

By Ayanna Blair

A dental technician who allegedly threatened to kill his wife before assaulting her and his son with a cutlass was remanded to prison when he appeared at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.

Roy Lall of Shell Road, Kitty pleaded not guilty to the charges of threatening behaviour and two counts of assault when he appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson.

Lall denied that on July 25 at his Kitty home he used threatening behaviour towards his wife Jean Lall and that he unlawfully assaulted her and their 17-year-old son.

His lawyer Mohamed Zafar stated that this is the first time that his client has been accused of such offences.

He said that the family has decided to reconcile and that Jean Lall had indicated to him that she would not be proceeding with the matters against her husband.

Jean Lall, who wore a distressed expression, told the court that she did not wish to proceed with the matters.

Zafar said that the incident arose out of a misunderstanding between Lall and his wife.

However, Prosecutor  Stephen Telford told the court that Jean Lall told the police that on the day in question after  an argument with her husband, he picked up a cutlass and sharpened it while telling her that “he was going to separate her head from her body” and then he assaulted her and their son.

The prosecutor noted that the statement was a clear indication that the defendant wanted to kill his wife and so the police instituted the  charges against him.

Regarding the wife not wanting to give evidence against her husband, the prosecutor stated that Section 48 of the Evidence Act states that if the witness is competent to give evidence as is clearly seen in this case, then by law she will.

The prosecutor further noted that this is not the first time that Jean Lall made reports of abuse by her husband to the police.

He said that the defendant was even warned by the police to desist from abusing his wife but  he still continued to be abusive.

“We can’t allow these people to make a mockery of the court and police,” the prosecutor declared.

He said that deaths due to domestic violence against women were rising in Guyana and when women continually come to the court to resolve matters where they were assaulted by their spouses and then end up dead everyone wanted  to put the blame on the police and the court instead of those same women. The prosecutor requested that the magistrate set a date for Gene Lall to go into the witness box and give evidence in the matter.

The prosecutor further requested that the defendant be remanded to prison.

The magistrate subsequently ordered that the defendant be remanded to prison and  the matter be transferred to Court Ten for August 5.