By FARRAH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
fjohnson@tribunemedia.net
A MAN accidentally struck his baby in the face with a beer bottle after he stalked and tried to assault the young child’s mother earlier this year, a court was told.
The accused — whose name has been withheld to protect the identity of the one-year-old child and his mother — is currently on trial before Senior Magistrate Derence Rolle Davis.
He denies the allegations.
The child’s mother said in July, she was a passenger in a car that was travelling on Sir Milo Butler highway when the accused followed her. The woman said while her male companion was driving, she was seated in the passenger seat breastfeeding her infant. She said while on the highway, she noticed that her car door swung open. She said when she “looked to the left”, she saw the accused had reached over and opened the door after pulling alongside her vehicle in another car. The woman said after the driver she was riding with “swerved” to get her car door to close again she locked it, but her child’s father continued to pursue them and “chase them through traffic”.
“As we turned off Fire Trail Road, he still followed us,” she said. “It was a dead end so him and the people he was riding with sped up in front of us and come out of the car. One of them throw a Guinness bottle which hit me in the head. My baby daddy threw another bottle which hit my baby on top of his eye.”
The woman said after the glass bottle made impact with her baby’s face she started “screaming and panicking” because her child “blacked out”.
“I shaked him because he was unconscious,” she said. “We ended up going to Princess Margaret Hospital. I got a scar, but my baby eye was swollen and the doctor said the impact was hard (because) he required a CAT scan.”
Although the accused claimed to be represented, his defence counsel was not present during the proceedings.
As a result, Magistrate Rolle Davis adjourned the case to give the accused an opportunity to seek legal representation.
The case continues December 12.
Commenting has been disabled for this item.