Woman questions security footage authenticity

A St James woman who reportedly stabbed another woman with scissors during a bar fight, insists that video footage submitted by the complainant has been tampered with.

Antonetta Wedderburn is charged with unlawful wounding. It is alleged that she got into a fight with another patron at a bar on Union Street in Montego Bay on April 18. During the altercation, the complainant, who was employed as a bartender at the establishment, attempted to intervene, whereupon Wedderburn allegedly stabbed her in her left arm with the scissors. During the case's mention on Wednesday in the St James Parish Court, Wedderburn rejected the footage in the video clip that was presented by the prosecution, which reportedly showed her as the aggressor in the incident.

"Is not so it go, ma'am, is two of them gang me. Her friend took a bottle and hit me in my head, and then she (complainant) came behind me and grabbed me," Wedderburn stoutly insisted to presiding Judge Sasha-Marie Ashley.

"How do you know it was her?" asked Ashley.

"I just know, it's common sense. It's not fair that the two of them gang me and I have to pay them. Is wipe they wipe the footage," Wedderburn said angrily.

Meanwhile, the court was told that although Wedderburn, who previously appeared in court on May 31, had also filed a report against the complainant, no action had been taken against the other woman. It was also disclosed that an additional statement is to be taken from another witness to the incident.

Judge Ashley subsequently extended Wedderburn's bail to July 21, when the matter will again be mentioned.

C.T.