MIRIAM Matthews went to the Corporate Area Criminal Court on Monday, to attend the trial of a man charged with the rape of her 14 year-old daughter.

But the frustrated mother now finds herself before the court after being accused of threatening attorney David Morales in the corridors of the court. Morales is defending the accused, Anthony Pinnock, 37.

The police said the case was mentioned on Monday and after the adjournment Matthews allegedly accosted Morales and threatened his life.

Matthews was taken into custody and brought back to court yesterday to answer to the charge.

“My daughter was raped. The guy told me he was guilty. These people should be protecting the children and they are not doing this. The children are no longer protected in this country,” the distraught woman told presiding magistrate Martin Gayle. She denied threatening the lawyer.

“I was frustrated. I said, you know your client is guilty of raping my daughter and is so you people go around letting go these people so they will come back and do it again,” Matthews explained to the presiding magistrate. “I said you see unu, unu must dead”.

Matthews told the court that she was offered $30,000 by the accused man to end the case.

“I tell him I am not going to sell my daughter for 30 pieces of silver,” said Matthews as she broke down in tears.

According to the distressed mother, the incident has had a traumatic effect on her daughter and as a result her grades have declined sharply.

“She was a straight A student and now she is averaging 40 per cent. She has to be taking counselling,” Matthews said as she shook her head slowly. ” I, too, was raped when I was 12 so I know what she is going through,” she told the court.

RM Gayle clearly sympathised with the saddened woman in the dock before him and urged her to let the case run its course.

“I know you are pained. No parent would feel good if their daughter is raped and I think what you have done is out of frustration,” Gayle told Matthews. “The wheels of justice are sometimes swift and sometimes slow. Let the court deal with it.”

“Yes, but I have been coming here since August 28. The medical report is ready but sometimes the lawyer say him sick and don’t come and the policeman don’t come sometime, either. This is not justice,” Matthews replied.

She was granted bail in the sum of $10,000, with one surety. Matthews’ ageing mother, Liela Lodge stood as surety for her.

The case of threatening will next come before the court on February 15.

-walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com