Court upholds $600 compensation order in 2018 pool party wounding case

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By Latrishka Thomas

[email protected]

A late-night pool party that turned violent six years ago reached its final legal chapter this week.

The Court of Appeal has thrown out attempts by prosecutors to increase compensation payments from four women who admitted to a vicious attack.

Dalianne Richardson, Shanique Dwyer, Larsheka Gray, and Shimmea Welsh, who admitted to stabbing a woman at the Royal Cove Hotel in September 2018, were each ordered to pay $600 in compensation to the victim after they pleaded guilty to the offence in 2020.

The incident occurred during a birthday celebration where the victim and her friend were at the hotel’s pool.

The situation escalated when Gray entered the victim’s hotel room at midnight, knocked over her boyfriend’s birthday cake, claiming he was actually her boyfriend.

This led to a violent confrontation involving all four defendants.

The victim was treated at Mount St John Medical Centre for nine lacerations to her scalp, forehead, face, neck, chest, and arms, sustained from broken bottles used in the attack.

While the DPP argued the compensation was “unduly lenient” given the severity of injuries and group nature of the attack, the Appeals Court disagreed, citing the importance of the defendants’ financial means in determining compensation amounts.

“The appellant has not discharged its burden of establishing that the sentence was unduly lenient as they have not been able to point to any evidence which was before the judge as to the financial means of the respondents at the time of sentencing that would have warranted her imposing a higher level of compensation,” the court stated.

The court noted that all four women had already paid their compensation and successfully completed their probation without further incidents. The Appeals Court concluded it would be “unfair to the respondents and not in the interest of justice” to reconsider the compensation order.

The original sentence will remain unchanged following the dismissal of the appeal.

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