Daughter choked by dad

A Corporate Area father was ordered to attend counselling with his family, after he admitted to choking and beating his daughter.

It was shared in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court that on December 7, 2022, the father received information from his daughter's teacher and confronted her about it. He proceeded to hit the child in her face and choked her. The child's mother came home and noticed swelling and bruises and then reported the incident to the police.

"I was scolding my daughter," the man said, when he was first arraigned by the clerk of court.

"The allegations are not about scolding, meaning you said something to the child. It is about physically touching the child in a way that caused her harm and that is what you are being pleaded about. So are you guilty or not guilty?" Parish Judge Paula Blake-Powell explained to the defendant.

The man then pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Following his plea, judge Blake-Powell requested a social enquiry report to assist in sentencing.

"Your Honour, can I just say one thing that will solve this right away?" the man asked. But his request was not accommodated by the judge who said she was referring the matter to counselling. The man is expected to return to court on April 3.

- T.T.