Aubrey Rodney who is accused of hammering and stabbing his common-law wife, Sharon Howell, was yesterday allowed to post bail after the court lifted a previous order requiring him to lodge his passport as a precondition.
At yesterday’s hearing before Magistrate Faith McGusty, Rodney told the court that he had left his passport at Howell’s home.
Howell who was present then informed the court that while she was hospitalised, her children had packed the man’s belongings and put them out as garbage.
Howell opined that Rodney’s passport was probably among his belongings and was probably taken away by the garbage truck, which explains why he could not locate the document.
Upon hearing this, the court lifted its condition that the defendant’s passport be lodged before being admitted to bail.
However, the court imposed other conditions, among which is the accused is to be not less than 300 feet away from the virtual complainant (VC), as stipulated by a domestic violence restraining order.
Additionally, he was ordered not to interfere with the witnesses in the matter and to report to the police station twice per week.
Rodney has since removed from the residence he once shared with Howell.
The prosecution informed the court yesterday that it was ready to commence the preliminary inquiry (PI) into the proceedings but did not because the VC had not fully recovered from her injuries.
The VC seemed to have been suffering from a speech impediment.
The proceedings were held in camera, (to the exclusion of the public) because of the VC’s request and the nature of the domestic violence charge.
On June 15, Rodney was granted bail in the sum of $400,000 but had been kept imprisoned because he could not produce his passport to be lodged with the police.
The matter will be called again on July 31.
Rodney is accused of the May 27 charge which alleges that he unlawfully and maliciously wounded Howell with intent to commit murder.
He has not been required to plead to the indictable charge.
According to reports, around 1:30 am on May 27, Howell, a security guard and her partner Rodney arrived home after the woman had finished her shift at a D’Urban Street, Georgetown, bar and the two were heard arguing loudly.
The mother of 10 was stabbed multiple times about the body, including to her shoulder, neck and head, and also battered in her head with the claw of a hammer.
Rodney, the father of the woman’s youngest child, a one-year-old, later ingested a poisonous substance at his sister’s home at Diamond, East Bank of Demerara, and he, too, was subsequently hospitalised.
Sometime later he was discharged and placed before the courts.
