Jamaica: Forceful sexual assault case on deaf man by deaf woman, ends with mediation

St James, Jamaica: A deaf man who was accused of assaulting a deaf woman to fulfil his sexual demand was released with a warning by the judge of St James Parish Court on Wednesday. The case was reported to be resolved through mediation.

As per the details, a woman was sitting at a bar on Union Street in St James when the accused, Smith approached her and asked her to have sex with him. The woman refused to share any sexual contact with him, subsequently, the accused took a piece of board and struck that in her face. 

This resulted in creating a swelling around the woman’s right eye and a dark circle. Following the incident, both were presented in court and the hearing was conducted in sign language due to the hearing-impaired issue of both the accused and the victim. 

During the hearing, the prosecutor failed to show any evidence against Smith. Therefore, the presiding judge Natiesha Fairclough-Hylton stated that he was not aware of what took place on that day and shared that the acquisitions which has been charged against the accused carry imprisonment for up to three years. 

He gave a warning to Smith and said that if he committed another offence then he would be charged and he would not go like this rather he would be given severe punishment. He asked the accused to maintain peace and not to get involved in such kind of offences. 

The parties successfully addressed and resolved their differences and the case through mediation. 

Several residents of the community took to their official Facebook accounts and expressed their different views and opinions on the matter. 

One person commented “I really didn’t understand this case, it is very weird, I seriously have no idea what to say on this. All I know is sexual offence is not right and assaulting someone is not anyone’s right. He should be punished if he did this.”

Another person commented the following “It sounds funny reading this, but it is literally a serious offence, doesn’t matter what issue the accused is going through, if he is guilty he should be treated as a criminal and serious actions should be taken against him.”