THE testimony of a Christian woman elicited laughter in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court recently, after she told the judge that it was out of her undying love for God that she used a piece of stick to beat her female neighbour.

The woman, Carmen Jones, was hauled before the court on October 19 on a charge of assault occasioning bodily harm, to which she pleaded guilty.

But the plea came after she told the court that the complainant had accused her of working obeah and that the complainant's father had thrown her, her pregnant daughter and 82-year-old mother out of their home.

"So what did you do to the complainant?" Magistrate Lorna Shelly Williams asked.

"Your Honour, I used a piece of stick to hit her three or four times, but I did not hit her out of anger," Jones said.

"I hit her out of the love of God and I tell her that Christians must set example, must love their neighbour as themselves and should not bear false witness against their neighbour," the woman said amidst giggles from those in court.

"If I wasn't a good person, I wouldn't have got a two-bedroom house to live in," she added in a raised tone as she got emotional.

"What did I do to him for him (the complainants father) to do that to me and my daughter who is pregnant?" Jones asked aloud.

After patiently listening to her, the magistrate quietly asked Jones, "Are you finished now?"

Jones was then ordered to reimburse the complainant's $3,000 medical bill and pay a fine of $40,000 or serve three months in prison.

"You cannot hit the woman with a stick," said the judge before the complainant revealed that Jones had used a piece of 2x4 board to hit her.