Alleged tourist attacker in court today
OCHO RIOS, St Ann — Robert Taylor, the 27-year old St Ann man charged with attacking a group of Canadian tourists on Sunday, will return to court today. He was granted bail in the sum of $300,000 with surety when he appeared in the Ocho Rios Resident Magistrate’s court Tuesday.
Taylor was charged with assault and wounding after an alleged altercation between himself and a group of Canadian tourists and their nanny, at the privately owned Cardiff Hall beach in Runaway Bay. The incident occurred after Taylor allegedly objected to the group using the property.
His first court appearance Tuesday was not without incident, as defence lawyer Robert Brown objected strongly to the police’s account of the incident. He insisted that it was his client who was attacked by the tourists.
“He is a Jamaican, sitting on a Jamaica beach, attacked by foreigners yet he is the one thrown in jail,” Brown charged in an emotional appeal that prompted Resident Magistrate Yvonne Brown to warn, “Calm yourself counsellor!”
The magistrate then dismissed Brown’s attempt to rationalise the case and insisted that the nationality of the accused was irrelevant.
“We have to have respect for each other, being Jamaican or Canadian is neither here nor there. We are all human beings,” RM Brown said.
But the attorney would have none of it and continued his emotionally charged presentation in which he accused the police of dismissing his client’s attempt to file a report and then refusing to take his client to the hospital.
The magistrate, however, interjected once again and called Vanessa James, the nanny who was allegedly punched by Taylor in Sunday’s incident, to give her account of the melee.
James told the court that she had accompanied the guests to the Cardiff Hall beach, where a lifeguard told them they were not allowed to use the property. She added that Taylor then added his comments on the issue, in support of the lifeguard’s position, began hurling abuses at her and the Canadian tourists came to her defense.
James said the group was in the process of leaving the private beach when the accused attacked her and punched her in the left jaw, causing her to fall to the ground. The guests had to restrain Taylor, who then left, the nanny added.
At the end of the day’s testimony, Taylor’s attorney successfully argued, despite the prosecution’s objections, that his client should be allowed bail as he has “nowhere to run”. Bail was granted on condition that Taylor surrender his travel documents and report to the Runaway Bay police four times weekly. He is also to be fingerprinted.
The Canadian visitors are set to leave the island tomorrow, hence the effort to have a speedy end to the trial.