A young woman who claimed that she was defending her dog when she gave a man a taste of his own medicine after he hit the dog with a broomstick was last week fined $5,000 in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court.

The court heard that on December 27, Meri-jo Whyte, 21, of a Kingston address, was involved in a dispute with the complainant when she went for a broomstick and hit the man.

The man reported the incident and she was arrested and charged with unlawful wounding.

Last Friday when she appeared in court before Chief Parish Judge Judith Pusey, she pleaded guilty.

The judge then enquired about the complainant, who was absent, and was told by Whyte that he was in Old Harbour and would not be coming to court, as he was preparing to return home to the United States

The judge then asked her: “Why did you do it?”

“Because him hit my dog; he slapped him with a broomstick and broke it,” Whyte answered.

“Him always rushing my dog and my dog don’t trouble him,” she added.

Whyte then told the court that after the complainant had hit her dog, she spoke to him about it and he told her that she should return the hit if she was ‘bad’.

“I was proving that I was bad, so I take up my broom stick and hit him,” Whyte boldly told the court.

However, Judge Pusey told her that she should not have hit the complainant and should report the matter to the police next time and let them deal with the issue.

“Next time him hit your dog, carry the dog to a vet and make the vet give you a letter that the dog is injured, and carry that to the police and let them go for him and see how fast he can leave the island. But you just can’t hit him like that,” she said.