Alleged wife beater offers $300,000, plastic surgery
SPANISH TOWN, St Catherine — A 40 year-old taxi operator accused of constantly beating his common-law wife, whom he kept locked up for four months, has offered to pay her $300,000 in damages and also to foot the bill for any corrective surgery she may need.
Samuel Palmer, of Brunswick Avenue in Spanish Town, who has been charged with assault occasioning bodily harm arising from the incident, had his $50,000 bail extended when he appeared in the Spanish Town Resident Magistrate Court Tuesday. He is to return to court on May 8.
Allegations are that Palmer has steadily abused the woman since she moved in with him last November. He reportedly used cable wires to inflict welts all over her body and kept her prisoner whenever he left the house.
According to the police, Palmer once used the stick end of a plunger to stab the 22 year-old woman under the right breast, leaving a gaping wound.
The woman eventually escaped, during one of Palmer’s daily stints away from the home, and went to a relative’s home where she poured out her distress. The matter was reported to the Spanish Town police and later the same day, Palmer was picked up at his home and arrested and charged.
A picture showing the abuse inflicted to the woman’s body, which was taken into evidence in court, drew the wrath of Resident Magistrate Lorna Gayle. Obviously disturbed by the graphic images, she asked the young woman why she had chosen to remain in the relationship for four months and why she had allowed the abuse to continue.
The woman did not reply.
Speaking on Palmer’s behalf, attorney Carlton Coleman told the court that the wounds had been inflicted after his client had lost his temper. He then made the offer, on his client’s behalf, to pay $300,000 in damages.
Coleman added that Palmer was willing to have the damages to his common-law wife assessed and to pay for corrective surgery.
The abused woman is being represented by attorney-at-law Shawn Kinghorn.