‘Ratty’ to pay for smashing windshield

A man who was convicted of malicious destruction of property in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Tuesday is insisting that he is in a relationship with the complainant's mother.

Clifford 'Ratty' Bryan, 48, was ordered to pay $160,000 in damages when he appeared before Parish Court Judge Lori-Ann Cole-Montague. He was also remanded in custody until June 17 for the court to receive a social enquiry report, after Cole-Montague further evaluated the circumstances surrounding the case.

The court heard that on March 15, the complainant received a call from his sister who told him that Bryan was breaking into his mother's home. He said that upon arrival he saw Bryan standing at the doorway pulling on the door, seemingly trying to gain entry to the house. The complainant and Bryan got into an altercation. It is further reported that Bryan then used a machete to smash the windows of the complainant's Nissan AD Wagon motor car.

Bryan was subsequently arrested on March 17. However, Bryan dismissed the allegations, claiming that he is involved in a relationship with the complainant's mother, and would not hurt the family in any way.

Fighting the mother

"He is telling a lie on me, I swear to God on my mother's life," said Bryan. "This allegation that he is making against me is a lie because I was at his mother house and his little brother call him to say I was outside fighting the mother, in which nothing like that, because me and the mother are together."

"I been talking to her for three years since I came back to Jamaica from New York," he added.

"Did you come back to Jamaica willingly?" Cole-Montague asked. "No, You Honour," said Bryan. Cole-Montague asked the complainant, "Sir, to the best of your knowledge, is this man in any sort of relationship with your mother?" The complainant replied with a swift "No, Miss."

The woman, who was also present in court, denied that she was in a relationship with Bryan.

"Lie him a tell, Miss, lie. Me and him don't deh, Miss. Him is a liar, right now him trust me things from me clothes business and don't want to pay me the $10,000," she said.

"Him always a try intimidate me because him know say me soft. Me even scared to stay at my house and live in a the community. This man even threaten to thump out me 14-year-old teeth and me and this man not in anything," the woman added.