Man gets six months for attacking mother

Frustration caused by not knowing who his father is has resulted in a young man of Bequia being sentenced to six months at the Belle Isle Correctional Facility.{{more}}

Colwyn Ragguette was sentenced on Tuesday, after he pleaded guilty to attempting to cause bodily harm to his mother at the Serious Offences Court.

According to facts read in court, the 30-year-old was travelling in a van in Bequia on April 5, around 7:20 p.m., when he got into an altercation with another passenger. His mother, Valma Ragguette, who was also a passenger in the minibus, spoke to him about it. The bus stopped and Ragguette and his mother exited.

The two got into an argument close to the police station, during which the young man took up three stones and threw them at his mother. She dodged the stones and reported the matter to the police.

Ragguette, who lives with his mother, admitted in court that he does not have a good relationship with her because she has never told him who his father is. He also revealed that he got upset and threw the stones at her because the persons on the bus and others in Bequia usually taunt him about who they believe his father is.

Magistrate Rechanne Browne-Matthias handed down sentence, noting that perhaps Ragguette needed time on “a hill with cool breeze” to think about his actions.

Senior prosecutor in the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions Adolphus Delplesche agreed with Browne-Matthias, saying that the defendant should be grateful, as his mother brought him into the world and cared for him without a father, as opposed to abandoning him.

“How are you any different than half of the Vincentian population if not more?” the chief magistrate asked.

“If she is dead, how would you know who your father is? If these stones had connected, you would have been here on a very different charge.”(BK)