A young woman, who physically assaulted her friend following a long-standing dispute over shoes that she had borrowed from her, reduced her friend to tears when she apologised in court.

“Miss Pusey, imagine she borrow me shoes and because mi ask her she diss mi, and wen she see mi she up inna mi face,” the teary-eyed complainant previously told the court.

Shaneik Campbell, 23, was arrested and charged with assault after she used a T-square to hit her friend during a dispute, which stemmed from a pair of shoes that the complainant had asked her to return after loaning the pair to her.

Immediately after Campbell, who had previously pleaded guilty, was sentenced by Chief Parish Judge Judith Pusey, she indicated that she wanted to apologise to her friend and, before she could even begin to say how sorry she was, the complainant broke down in tears and walked over to Campbell and embraced her.

The judge subsequently reduced her fine to $15,000, which, if not paid, will result in Campbell serving six months in prison.

However before Campbell was sentenced, the judge, who had remembered the case, informed the lawyer, who was not present when the case was first mentioned that: “They were good friends so much that they would borrow things from each other. But a request was made for her to return her shoes and it caused some animosity, and ever since they have parted ways.

“And she has been throwing words on her since, before it became physical,” Judge Pusey added.

Irving then told the court that even though his client had pleaded guilty, she was not guilty of hitting the complainant, she had only shoved her, and that the complainant had also provoked his client.

But the judge told him that hitting was distinctly different from shoving and that he should not try and sanitise the situation.

“By the time you finish addressing me your client don’t do anything; it was just a mere push,” she chided the lawyer.

She then remarked that it was important for persons who have admitted their guilt to show some remorse during sentencing, and that lawyers should not distance themselves from all the factors involved in the situation.

Campbell was also charged with malicious destruction of property for tearing the complainant’s merino, but the charge was admonished and discharged.