A 22-year-old man who slapped a 64-year-old nurse in her face at a polyclinic on Monday afternoon, triggering public outrage and the closure of the health facility, was remanded to Dodds Prison after appearing in the Oistins Magistrates’ Court.
Josiah Lovell of Lancaster, St James, went before Acting Chief Magistrate Deidre McKenna on Tuesday and admitted to assaulting Hyacinth Green, occasioning her actual bodily harm on September 22.
According to the facts read by Sergeant Richard Ellis, Green is a sister at the Randall Phillips Polyclinic in Oistins and was inside the Immunisation Office with a registered nurse, who is currently on orientation.
When the accused and his girlfriend came into the office with their baby for his scheduled vaccination around 12:40 p.m., Green instructed the nurse to administer the shot. While demonstrating how to hold the infant for the injection, the nurse adjusted the girlfriend’s hands. The girlfriend responded by telling the nurse not to touch her, and the nurse subsequently apologised.
After Green spoke to the girlfriend about her behaviour, Lovell got involved and eventually started cursing. He refused to leave the room when directed to do so by the complainant, saying he was waiting for his child’s book. Green handed it over and attempted to leave, but Lovell was blocking the door and continued cursing while advancing towards her, putting his hands in her face. He only moved after his girlfriend called him.
After they exited the room, the complainant was walking past the girlfriend, who had stopped and said, ‘You gine push me down’. It was then that Lovell turned around and slapped Green on the left side of her face. Green said she immediately felt pain and became dizzy. She grabbed the accused’s haversack and tried to stop him from leaving while asking the receptionist to call the police, but the accused managed to pull away. Green said she never touched the accused’s girlfriend. She reported the matter to the police. Lovell subsequently presented himself to the Oistins police station.
Sergeant Ellis objected to Lovell’s bail on several grounds, including the seriousness of the offence, the public outrage sparked by the incident, and the resulting closure of the health institution, which affected the community dependent on this social service.
Magistrate McKenna ordered a pre-sentence report for Lovell and remanded him pending sentencing until October 21.
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