A woman who is accused of using a figurine to beat her daughter’s 78-year-old ex-lover in his head claims she was defending herself after he attacked her because she refused his sexual advances.

The accused, Rosemarie Phillips, believed to be in her mid-50s, told the court on Friday that the complainant attacked her after she went to his home in Seaview Gardens, St Andrew, for a gas regulator, which was allegedly left there by her daughter.

“Him push me out and a say a long time him a look wife from me and me nah gi him, and him push me out and have me by me hair a draw me and me tek up a figurine and lick him with it,” she told the court.

But the complainant, after listening to the accused, told the court: “A don’t know what she a talk bout now.”

He explained that on the morning of the incident, he was home when Phillips sent her son for the regulator, but he sent to tell her that it was not there.

The complainant said that Phillips then came by his house and started quarrelling, using only expletives.

“Me say to her, ‘You cyaan gwaan suh bad in the morning and me hold her hand and draw her out and she bite me on me finger and grab me up and start beat me in a me head with the figurine.

“Me cudn’t see after she beat me inna me head; me had to go to the hospital,” the complainant said.

The magistrate, after listening to both parties, told them that the matter would have to go to trial since the accused was claiming self-defence.

She then asked attorney Althea Freeman to represent Phillips as a legal aid assignment and she agreed. The matter was rescheduled for mention on August 29, and Phillips’s bail was extended.