Morgans’ lawyer suggests Victory provoked clash

Could the incident in which a pastor, his wife and their daughter poured a hot liquid about a man’s body earlier this year be justified by provocation?

The line of questioning taken by Kay Bacchus-Baptiste, legal counsel to Pastor Nigel Morgan, his wife Althea and their daughter Crystal, on Friday at the Mesopotamia Magistrate’s Court, suggests that the family’s actions were taken after they had been provoked.

Earlier this year, the family from Hopewell pleaded not guilty to unlawfully and maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm on Cuthbert ‘Mafia’ Victory of Prospect, formally of Caruth Village.{{more}}

Their actions became the subject of public scrutiny after a 54-second video, showing the family’s alleged assault on the 37-year-old mason sometime after 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 9, at Hopewell, was published on social media.

The video shows Victory struggling to free himself from the grasp of a man and a woman, while standing in a large gutter. At one point, a young lady stands over the trio and pours a liquid from a silver kettle on to Victory’s body.

Following numerous adjournments, the trial began last Friday, with Victory giving his version of what had transpired. According to him, on April 9, 2016, he went to Richland Park to watch a cricket match, after which, he went to a friend’s house.

Victory said while there, he was playing loud music through a music box when Pastor Morgan came to his friend’s gate and told the friend not to harbour Victory there. Both Victory and Morgan began a verbal exchange.

Victory told the court that he was walking away from the altercation when Morgan’s wife came into the yard and began putting her finger in his face.

However, according to him, when he got into the road, Mrs Morgan pushed him and the two began to wrestle and Mr Morgan joined in and threw a liquid in his face.

“I don’t know wah it be, but it been burning my eye,” Victory told the court, adding that the Morgans repeated “Is the blood of God.”

He said that three of them began to wrestle and as a result he was pushed into a gutter and both Morgans joined him, as the three continued to fight.

“Then I hear one of them say ‘bring the thing, bring the thing’,” he recounted.

Victory further told the court that when he raised his head, he saw their daughter, Crystal, approaching with a kettle and her father and mother held on to him, one on each side, while she poured a hot substance on him.

Now badly burnt, Victory said Mrs Morgan slammed him against the wall of the drain and when he climbed out, Mr Morgan spanked him on the buttocks and told him not to return to the area.

He was carried to the health centre in Mesopotamia, then to Evesham, before he was taken to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital in Kingstown, where he was treated for burns about his body.

During Bacchus-Baptiste’s cross-examination, Victory said that because of his injury, he has been unable to work and would like compensation for the time he has been at home jobless.

However, Bacchus-Baptiste suggested that Victory’s evidence was not the complete truth and what he told the court was part of a scheme to extract money from the Morgans.

During the trial, Bacchus-Baptiste strongly suggested that Victory was in the habit of harassing the pastor and on numerous occasions had called Mr Morgan a “Bullerman” (homosexual), who also engages in sexual relations with his daughters.

Victory denied all suggestions put to him by the lawyer, including those of him being a disrespectful and quarrelsome person.

Bacchus-Baptiste, during cross-examination, suggested a different version of what had transpired.

She suggested that Victory was playing loud and derogatory music when Pastor Morgan asked him to turn it down and that is why he asked his neighbour (Victory’s friend) not to harbour him in the area.

The seasoned lawyer further suggested that Victory called Morgan a “Bullerman”, among other offensive remarks and said that his wife was ashamed to be married to him and it was at that moment Mrs Morgan involved herself.

Additionally, Bacchus-Baptiste alleged that Victory spat on Mrs Morgan and slapped her and that is when Mr Morgan called his son to “bring the thing”, which Bacchus-Baptiste said was olive oil.

According to her, Victory knocked the oil out of their hands and that is when it caught his eye. She said Victory punched Mr Morgan and pushed him and his wife into the gutter and while there, began pulling Mrs Morgan’s

hair.

“You were the architect of your own demise,” Bacchus-Baptiste asserted.

Additionally, she said that Victory instigated the family’s reaction and suggested that that is why he didn’t immediately go to the police.

The popular lawyer then referred to Victory’s police report, in which he stated that he was burned before he saw Crystal Morgan, to prove to the court that Victory was not being truthful in his evidence.

However, the video that went viral on social medial in April shows three persons at the gutter, and one young lady clearly pouring a liquid on to Victory from a kettle.

The bail of XCD$5,000 which each of the Morgans was granted earlier this year will continue and their trial is expected to resume on January 13, 2017. (AS)