A labourer from Port Kaituma, accused of biting his wife on the forehead during a quarrel, was released on self-bail and the couple was ordered by Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan to seek counselling when the man appeared at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
Ron Bovell, 18, a labourer living in Port Kaituma, was charged with assaulting his common-law wife. He pleaded not guilty to the charge which stated that on August 27th at Third Basin, Port Kaituma, he assaulted his wife so as to cause her actual bodily harm.
According to Police Prosecutor Gordon Mansfield, the young couple had a misunderstanding and Bovell bit his wife on the forehead resulting in her sustaining abrasions to the left side of her forehead.
Bovell told the court that on the day in question, he went to borrow a shovel when his 18-year-old wife started an argument with him because she and the neighbour from whom he borrowed the shovel are not on speaking terms.
While Mansfield did not object to the defendant being released on bail, he asked the magistrate to order Bovell to leave the home in which he lives with his young wife.
Both Bovell and his wife, who was absent from court on Friday, were ordered to get counselling until the end of the trial. The young man was released on self-bail and the matter was transferred to the Matthews Ridge Magistrate’s Court for November 5th.
