Man pays dearly for biting policeman

A policeman had to be tested for HIV and rabies after he was bitten by a man he was attempting to take into custody.

The constable made the revelation in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court yesterday, when he informed Senior Parish Judge Lori-Ann Cole-Montague that the accused, Oneil Dempster, bit him on his right hand after he tried to arrest him for breaching the curfew.

The judge expressed shock at Dempster’s actions and condemned the act of biting another person.

“Separate and apart from it being a criminal offence, even from the perspective of proper hygiene, you don’t know, not saying that the officer has anything, but you don’t know what anybody have. How you can be biting people?” the judge quizzed.

Dempster also told the court that he could furnish his personal records that would prove he does not have HIV or rabies.

However, the judge informed him that the complainant was not accusing him of being a carrier of diseases nor was the court trying to be discriminatory.

“When those things happen, you have to be on medical watch, just like if a woman gets raped. If a woman is raped and the man does not use protection, you don’t know what an assailant might have. So, as a part of standard procedure when you present at the hospital, they are going to put you in antiretroviral medication,” the judge explained.

Dempster paid $70,000 in compensation to the police officer. He was also fined a total of $27,000 for breaches of the Disaster Risk Management Act.

He is expected to return to court on February 9 to answer two counts of assaulting the constable, to which he pleaded not guilty.

– T.T.