Security guard Andre Williams, 52, was fined yesterday for slapping a three-year-old boy who went into his yard to retrieve a balloon, leaving him with a bloody nose.
Williams, of 117 Cedar Street, Agricola, East Bank Demerara was ordered by Magistrate Fabayo Azore to pay the $80,000 fine or spend three months in prison, after he pleaded guilty to unlawfully assaulting the boy so as to cause him actual bodily harm.
The prosecution’s case was that he head-butted and slapped the child, causing him to bleed from his nose.
“I din butt him. I just slapped the child after he spit on me,” the unrepresented Williams said in his explanation to the court.
“You must have slapped the child extremely hard to have caused him to bleed from his nose,” Magistrate Azore, however, said to Williams, after perusing the child’s medical certificate which was presented to the court by the prosecution.
Williams, who indicated to the court that he has no children when asked, said that he did not realise that he had hit the child so hard.
“I din realise is so hard I hit him. I just fire my hand,” he said.
Inspector Burgette Grant, who presented the prosecution’s case, said that the incident occurred on July 3, at Agricola; East Bank Demerara, when the toddler went into Williams’ yard to retrieve a balloon with which he was playing.
She said that the child’s mother left him at home with his father and went two houses away to speak to someone. Upon her return, she observed her son bleeding from his nose and crying.
Grant added that the child reported to his mother that Williams head-butted and slapped him after he went to retrieve his balloon.
The toddler was present at court in the company of his mother. Once the charge was read to the Williams and he entered his plea, however, the child and his mother were subsequently excused from the proceedings because of his young age.
When asked by the magistrate if he wanted to say anything before the imposition of penalty, Williams said that he was sorry for what he had done. He said too that he had apologised to the child’s father on the day after the incident had occurred. He added that the child’s father told him that he should have complained to him instead of hitting the child.
In handing down the penalty, the magistrate said that Williams appeared to have been apologetic and also took into consideration that he was a first-time offender.
In listing the aggravating circumstances, however, Magistrate Azore cautioned Williams that the complainant was just a child and that he, being the adult, should have known and handled the situation in a better manner. The court also took into account also that some form of excessive force seemed to have been used causing the child to bleed. As a result, the magistrate ordered Williams to pay the $80,000 fine, failing which he will be imprisoned for three months.
