Left: Justice Frederick Bruce-Lyle is sick of the abuse meted out to womenfolk in this country. Right: Bilton Primus hides his face on his way to remand at Her Majesty’s Prisons.
Senior High Court Judge Frederick Bruce-Lyle has added his voice to the public outcry regarding violence against women, which seems to have escalated in recent years.
Justice Bruce-Lyle, during a High Court sitting on Monday, October 24, sent a clear message to men who seem to think they possess the right to physically abuse women.
“No man has any right to lay his hands on his wife or his common-law-wife”, Bruce-Lyle declared. “I am sick of what is going on in this country.”
He noted that there is serious abuse in this country committed by husbands against their wives and by men against their common-law wives.
Bruce-Lyle’s comments came after a nine-member jury, comprised of five women and four men, found Bilton Primus, a 38-year-old carpenter/farmer of Campden Park, guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm on his former common-law wife, Darrine Edwards, a supermarket cashier of Old Montrose, 20 at the time of the incident.
He informed Primus that the offence carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Primus only stared at the Judge in response, and showed no signs of emotion.
He was found not guilty of kidnapping.
Kidnapped
The trial commenced at the Criminal Assizes last week Monday, October 17. Primus was represented by attorney Ronald Marks, who pleaded vigorously for leniency. Crown Counsel Colin John prosecuted.
Edwards testified that she and Primus had a six-year intimate relationship which terminated in February 2009. After it ended, Primus continued to call Edwards, threatening that if he couldn’t get her, nobody else would.
She recalled that around 7:30 a.m. November 5, 2009, she was walking from her Old Montrose home en route to Arnos Vale to do an interview. On reaching the area of the Botanic Gardens, she saw a white car parked on the right side of the road.
Edwards, who said she was walking on the left side of the road, recalled that the vehicle moved and pulled up close her. Primus, who was sitting in the back seat, opened the door, held on to her right hand and pulled her into the car. He told the driver to take her to his home at Campden Park because he had to “deal with my case.”
Confined and threatened
The driver drove them to Primus’ home then left. Primus told Edwards that if she raised an alarm he would “end” her.
Asked by Crown Counsel John what she understood that to mean, she said she understood it to mean he would kill her.
Edwards said Primus put her to walk in front of him and when they got into the house, he asked her which man she was having sex with. She did not answer. Primus then went to the kitchen, poured himself an alcoholic drink and returned with a hammer with which he proceeded to beat her, breaking her knee cap in the process. He then dragged her into the bathroom and turned on the (pipe) water on her.
He continued to question her and went for a Ju-c bottle which he pushed into her vagina, telling her, “if is man you want, is man you go get.” She said he kept her at his home for eight days, during which time he continued to beat her. She also sustained a cut in her head.
Edwards said Primus’ mother had come to visit him one day and he told her that if she said anything to his mother, he would “end” her. ‘Zoti’, a friend of Primus, also visited and on that occasion, he gave Edwards similar instructions. As a result, she said nothing about the abuse.
The escape
Edwards explained that although she was not locked in the house, she did not run away because her knee was broken. She added that Primus used to hang out at a shop in the area and if she left she would have had to pass that shop.
She recalled that on the eighth night, she heard Primus snoring and with the aid of a broom stick she hopped to the main road (Leeward highway) where she took a mini-bus to the Questelles Police Station. She reported the matter and was taken to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital.
Primus testifies
Edward’s sister Corrine Edwards said that around 5 a.m. November 12, 2009, she was at the hospital with her sister when she spotted Primus standing in front of the door of the victim’s room. Corrine shouted, “Look him,” and Primus ran.
During cross-examination, Marks told Darrine Edwards, “Let me put it to you, you are telling a pack of lies to this court.”
Edwards maintained that she was speaking the truth.
Marks suggested, “you were there (at Bilton’s home) voluntarily and every day you were cooking.”
The defence lawyer contended that Primus and his friend ‘Zoti’ brought two girls to Primus’ home the night before Edwards said she ran away. She was annoyed.
In his defence, Primus denied beating Edwards. He told the court that he and Edwards had had a relationship for a number of years and she lived by him until she went to Canouan.
Primus related that one day, while Edwards was at his home, he saw her limping and when he asked her what happened, she told him she had fallen.
However, the evidence of Dr. Onika Miguel revealed that based on the extent of the injuries sustained, it was unlikely that they could have been caused by a fall. In the doctor’s opinion, they were caused by blunt force trauma and a hammer could have inflicted them.
Justice Bruce-Lyle has adjourned the matter to November 11 to allow him time to consider what sentence to impose.
Article By: Haydn Huggins for The Vincentian
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