A British man faced the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court last week on drug charges after he attempted to leave the island with two ounces of ganja hidden in his anus.

Taimur Lorne, 43, an unemployed resident of Birmingham, England, was held with the narcotic substance on January 21 at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston after he checked in to board a flight home.

According to the police, an officer acting on information stopped and search Lorne and his luggage but nothing was found.

The police then requested a urine sample from Lorne and he complied. The sample was tested and returned a positive result for drugs.

Further reports are that Lorne then confessed that he had inserted ganja into his anus and subsequently removed 10 small parcels of the weed wrapped in black, and transparent plastic bags.

He was taken into custody and, when cautioned about being charged with possession of ganja, dealing and taking preparatory steps to export ganja, he reportedly said: “All these charges are mine?”

On Friday, when Lorne was taken before Senior Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey, he pleaded guilty to possession of ganja and taking preparatory steps to export ganja; while pleading not guilty to dealing in ganja, claiming that the drug was for his personal use.

“But you had it parcelled out,” the magistrate said to Lorne, who insisted that the drug was for his own use.

“Any reason why you shouldn’t go to prison for this?” the RM Pusey asked.

“I apologise, I made a mistake, but it was for my personal use,” Lorne maintained.

The magistrate in response said: “We are more than a beach, we are a country, we have laws and boundaries.”

Lorne was then asked to pay $200 for possession of ganja or serve 30 days, and $1,000 or 30 days for dealing in ganja, while he was admonished and discharged on the other charge.

Mongoose name sparks dispute

A St Andrew plumber, who reportedly called a 13-year-old teenage girl ‘mongoose’ and then got upset when she described his children as mongoose, faced the court for hitting her.

Junior Edwards, a 44-year-old resident of Iron River, St Andrew, is accused of chasing the teen and hitting her on the back of her neck after she took offence to being called mongoose and told him “mongoose like yuh two kids”.

But Edwards denied hitting the teen and on Monday when he appeared in court pleaded not guilty to cruelty to a child and assault occasioning bodily harm. As a result, his bail was extended for him to return for his trial on April 23.

According to police reports, on December 29 around 3:30 pm the complainant and her mother were doing their laundry at home in Iron River when the mother sent the complainant next door to rinse some clothes.

The complainant on her way to the neighbour’s premises reportedly saw the accused at the gate but passed him by without saying a word.

When the complainant completed her task and was leaving, the accused reportedly called her mongoose which caused the dispute.

Further reports said that the accused chased the teen, who ran but was caught and hit, which caused a swelling.

The matter was reported and Edwards was arrested and charged.

Neighbours war over dog’s burial

A man faced the court for hitting his neighbour with a piece of bamboo following a dispute over a dead dog.

The accused, Mark Bailey, of Upper West Avenue in Kingston is accused of using the piece of stick to hit the complainant in her head causing her to receive 22 stitches after spending three days in the Kingston Public Hospital, West Kingston.

On Wednesday when the two appeared before RM Pusey the complainant told the court that she was attacked by Bailey because she told his nephew not to bury his dog by her window.

“I came home and was talking to the landlord’s son and telling him that the dog can’t bury underneath my window, and him jump up inna de argument and say a nuh fi me yard, and from me come me want tek over,” the complainant explained.

She said that she then went for her machete to dig up the dog but put it down to take up her chairs which Bailey had flung towards her veranda when he attacked her and hit her head causing her to black out.

However, Bailey disputed the complainant’s story, claiming that it was she who first attacked him with the machete.

He told the court that the complainant placed her chairs underneath his clothing line and he told her that they could not stay there and threw them towards her house. He said that she ran for her machete as she came toward him and he hit her.

“So weh mi must do, tan up am mek she chop me up,” he said. “She chop up de landlord’s son already.

“This girl send gunman a mi workplace fi me she is not a good person, she is evil,” Bailey said.

He also told the court that the complainant had chased him with acid and that he had to be staying at his grandmother’s house because of her.

However, the complainant told the court that he was not being truthful, as she did not attack him with a machete. The complainant also told the court that she has since moved from the premises.

The magistrate, after listening to both sides of the story, set the matter for mention on March 31 and extended Bailey’s bail.

Hairdresser wounds another over space

An on-street hairdresser from downtown Kingston was placed before the court for stabbing another hairdresser above her left eye in a dispute over work space.

Sushanna Roberts, 28, of Wellington Street, Kingston 16, appeared in court on Friday on a charge of unlawful wounding to which she pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay $10,000 or serve six months.

The court heard that on January 30, around 12:15 pm the complainant was standing on Princess Street in downtown Kingston, when Roberts approached her and shoved her.

The complainant asked Roberts what the problem was, but she did not respond and proceeded to attack her with a pair of scissors, the court heard.

A struggle ensued between the two as the complainant tried to take the weapon away, but was overpowered by Roberts who used it to stab her above her left eye, the court also heard.

The complainant was taken to the Kingston Public Hospital for treatment and, while she was there, the court heard that Roberts went to the institution and threatened her, allegedly saying: “If you make any report to the police, mi ago throw something on you when you a do hair, or do you something; cause if me can’t stay a town you can’t stay either.”

However, on Friday when Roberts appeared in court, she was in a remorseful mood.

“We had an argument in the wholesale, but I didn’t mean to do it, ” she said before she was fined.