Trial date set for exotic dancer, cabbie

An exotic dancer and a taxi driver who were involved in a brawl, will both go on trial on April 6 at the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court.

Collen Moyton, 23, of Lincoln Avenue, and Austin Marley, 50, from Allman Town, both pleaded not guilty to the charges of unlawful wounding and assault occasioning bodily harm in a case and cross case.

Reports are that Moyton gave Marley a vehicle to operate, however, he ran into arrears of $5,500 and had been eluding the dancer.

It is alleged that on September 20, Moyton saw Marley in the parking lot at a nightclub in New Kingston and enquired about her money. Marley refused to pay the dancer who then used her dancing shoe to hit him on his arm causing a wound.

Marley allegedly countered the attack by slapping the dancer in her back repeatedly with a machete.

In court, Senior RM Judith Pusey said that the matter did not need to go to a trial and advised the cab driver to make a monetary compensation to the dancer instead.

When asked how much money she would like, Moyton said, "For all the emotional distress and traumatisation I suffered, as well as the days I missed from work, I would like $50,000."

However, Pusey advised the dancer that her request was unreasonable. "Don't over dramatise the incident. Let's be reasonable. Your skin was not broken. You have no permanent disfigurement," Pusey said.

But the dancer would not relent on the figure she requested, so the matter was sent to trial.