KINGSTON, Jamaica — Magistrate Simone Maddix last Thursday hung a 90-day suspended sentence over the head of a man who was hauled before her for battering his pregnant lover, after the abused woman begged for leniency.

Anthony Smith pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm when he appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court.

“I have to protect this unborn child since we are told not to have anymore for the rest of the year,” Maddix said in handing down the sentence.

“I told her I am sorry over 100 time. She mek her friend them a tell her say mi have next babymother and she fling dung herself,” Smith said.

Maddix told the complainant that she has a lot of time to find out if a rumour of him having a child by another woman is true, and urged her to take care of herself.

She told Smith that she was going to “hang something over his head” that would deter him from hitting the complainant, then sentenced him to 90 days suspended for a year.

Should he, during the 90-day period, commit an offence for which he could be imprisoned, Smith will have to serve the 90 days as well.

Racquel Porter