Son jailed for hitting mom with bottle.
By: Reshma Ragoonath (Guardian).
Emeline Matthew Even as Emeline Matthew faces partial blindness after her son struck her with a beer bottle, the 76-year-old still found it in her heart to forgive him yesterday. However, the Victoria Street, La Romain, woman, whose head was heavily bandaged with her right eye bloodied and swollen, said: “I don’t want to see him again.”
Yesterday, Matthew’s son, Wilbur, 49, a former Coast Guard officer, was jailed for two years hard labour when he appeared before San Fernando Second Court Magistrate Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds, charged with maliciously wounding his mother on Monday. He pleaded guilty to the charge, which was laid by PC Marcus Pascal. The elderly woman, who grimaced in pain while speaking with reporters after the matter, said she was not satisfied with the sentence.
She added: “I feel he could have gone longer. I don’t want to see him again. He is violent. “If the magistrate only know the hell I living. I could forgive him because of the knowledge of God. I forgive him but I don’t want to see him. He is the worst. He is my son.”
The attack came days before the mother of 13, nine of whom are still alive, and Wilbur were set to appear in the family court where she is seeking a protection order against him. That matter is set for August 18. She said: “That (the attack) is what I was afraid of.” Ramsumair-Hinds, in passing sentence on the former Coast Guard officer, said: “It seems to me you need a lesson in authority.” In his defence, Wilbur claimed his mother would go into his room and take things. He said: “I pelt two bottles and one hit her. It was not premeditated. I begging her to stop coming to my room.
“I agree what I did was wrong. It was not any maliciousness or vindictiveness. I just shoot the bottle behind she. I was angry.” However, he refused to accept that his mother was in a position of authority. Ramsumair-Hinds said: “You don’t seem to understand who are the owners of authority in your life. “You are a man who does not understand the place of a mother. A mother is the place of authority. “The position, mother, is deserving of respect. Parents do not have to do anything to get it. They get it as of right.”
Wilbur, when confronted by police, said: “Boss, meh eh know nothing about that. She is my mother. She must be fall and hit she head or something.” The magistrate called the injured woman forward and asked her to face Wilbur for him to see the result of his actions. He apologised. However, Ramsumair-Hinds said: “I heard an apology but no remorse, no acknowledgement or responsibility for how bad this act is, all I heard is an empty remark, I am sorry.”
She told Wilbur what she heard was “justification” for what he did. She had to warn him to lower his voice several times as he defended himself. The woman received a two-cm laceration on the right side of her head. The elderly woman said she intervened when Wilbur and one of his brothers were arguing over clothing. He threw two bottles behind her while she was walking away.
