By Latrishka Thomas
The late submission of a ‘no case’ application has forced the court to defer its ruling on a long-standing child abuse case.
Earlier this month, the prosecution finally closed its case against a married couple who are accused of endangering their son when he was 15 by severely beating him – a case that has been on the court’s docket for almost three years.
Immediately after, the defendant’s lawyer, Saska Diamond, indicated that she intended to file a ‘no case’ submission and was to do so within a week to allow for the prosecution to respond and Chief Magistrate Joanne Walsh to rule on the application yesterday.
However, the court heard that the submission was only filed on Wednesday.
But the prosecution indicated that they do not intend to respond, which will allow the magistrate to return her decision in a short time.
The alleged incident occurred on July 28 2020 in Potters.
After a long wait, the trial against them finally began in October 2021.
And it consisted of testimony from the child who told the court that he had received 65 “strokes” from his father on one of his hands after his stepmother kept a tally of punishments that were due to him for alleged misdemeanours until his father could administer them.
He said that he typically got 15 to 20 lashes for serious wrongdoing.
But one night he got 65 blows, compiled for things he’d apparently done while his father was away, he said.
He disclosed that he was being punished because he stole a donkey, lied, and did not stop his brother from taking a bucket that they used to hold sugar cane before selling it.
The Chief Magistrate will rule on that submission on July 10.
