Social media personality Jason Omar Taylor’s act of “expressing himself” has left him with a $3 000 fine to be paid within three months, failing which he will serve six months in jail.
The 44-year-old general worker of Pillersdorf Development, Grazettes, St Michael, appeared in the District ‘A’ Traffic Court before Magistrate Alison Burke on Monday and admitted to using a computer to send an electronic communication “**, a big stinking **, all de women you does ** ** up” and intended or was reckless as to whether he caused annoyance, inconvenience, distress or anxiety to Rasheed Callender to whom he intended it to be communicated.
The offence occurred between December 11 and 22.
Prosecutor Constable Cindy Greaves outlined that the two men are neighbours with a history of bad blood stemming from a prior incident. On December 18, Callender was on his Facebook account and saw a video posted to the account of a ‘Darkie Taylor’, which made remarks about his vehicle and referred to him in a derogatory manner.
Greaves stated that Taylor admitted to the police that he had posted the videos on a new phone he had purchased, as his other phone had been seized by detectives on another investigation and that he had “only been expressing himself”.
The court heard that Taylor is currently on bail from that court and another for similar charges and has 36 previous convictions.
Pointing out that those convictions were dated, with the last having occurred a decade ago, defence attorney Neville Reid stated that none of these had been under the Computer Misuse Act and urged the court, therefore, to treat Taylor as a first-time offender in the matter.
Saying the accused was gainfully employed and the lone caregiver for his elderly mother, the lawyer stated that the offence was not so egregious as to warrant a custodial sentence.
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