50-year bond shattered - Long-time friends end up in court

An elderly woman is expected to stand trial, facing allegations that she threw glass bottles at the feet of her supposed long-time friend, causing cuts and bruises.

The accused, Violet Thompson, is charged with unlawful wounding and assault at common law, in a cross case against Claudette Whormes, who appeared in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Monday facing a charge of malicious destruction of property. Thompson and Whormes, the court heard, have been friends for five decades.

"So who was prime minister of when unnu turn friend? Busta? Manley? Fifty years a nuff years yuh know," Senior Parish Judge Sanchia Burrell said.

"Me and her nuh friend Your Honour," Thompson hastily responded. The tension between the elderly women was explained by Whormes, who pleaded guilty to the offence.

"She have a big stall Your Honour, it take up most of the sidewalk. Me walk and bounce over a bucket she have at her stall, not for purpose, enuh, and she start fling beer bottle, like Dragon and Red Stripe. She just start fling dem pon me foot," Whormes explained. Whormes, 54, added that the splinters caused bleeding on her feet and she "stood quietly" and did nothing.

"All me do a just grab a stone, and she duck and me fling it. It ketch her fridge and bruk the glass," she said. Thompson did not deny Whormes' version of events. Whormes indicated to the senior jurist that she was willing to repair the broken glass and end the matter against Thompson. But Thompson was not willing to attend mediation with Whormes.

"Okay, well let's go to trial on your matter then," Burrell said to Thompson.

Sentencing for Whormes was postponed until next month to facilitate repairs to the broken fridge. Meanwhile Thompson, who was made the subject of a fingerprint order, is to return to court on November 19.