Man gets bail after chopping girlfriend’s father

ASt Catherine man, who allegedly chopped his girlfriend’s father during a confrontation, had his case deferred to January next year when he appeared before the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday on account of an incomplete case file.

Thirty-one-year-old cabinetmaker Ryan Thompson, originally of a Waterford address in St Catherine, and who is also from Barrett Town, St James, is charged with the unlawful wounding of Roystan Richards.

The allegations are that on October 2, Thompson and Richards were involved in a dispute during which Thompson used a machete to chop Richards on the arm and leg.

In a previous court appearance, Thompson told the court it was Richards who had attacked him on account of a dispute they had in 2011.

Yesterday, Clerk of the Court Natalie Malcolm told magistrate Carolyn Tie a document was still outstanding from the prosecution’s case file.

“The medical certificate is still out- standing. I will ask for a January date for the medical certificate,” said Malcolm.

“Was the medical certificate applied for?” asked Tie.

“Yes, Your Honour, from October,” said Malcolm.

The court was also told that Thompson, who, up until Wednesday, had been in police custody, had not taken up his bail offer of $350,000, which the defendant thought was too high.

“I will reduce the bail offer to $200,000, with the same conditions as before,” said Tie, referring to the previously given stipulations that Thompson was to relocate to Waterford, St Catherine, and to report to the Waterford Police Station.

“If you take up your bail, you will return here on January 15,” the magistrate told Thompson.