Man hits wife, son over common mango

An argument over a single stringy mango is said to be at the heart of a dispute between a man, his adult son and his common-law wife, which landed them before the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Tuesday.

It was reported that on March 7, the complainants were at home when an argument developed about cooking food. The defendant, Patrick Facey, hit his spouse and his son, causing swelling to her chest and his hand. Facey pleaded guilty to two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

"My son was hungry and I took up one mango, a stringy mango Your Honour, to give it to my son, Your Honour, and the gentleman ran mi down, he ran me down till all the mango drop. And then he was hitting me," Facey's common-law wife related to Senior Parish Judge Lori-Anne Cole-Montaque.

"One mango? One deggeh deggeh mango? A stringy mango? Not even an East Indian? Sir, this is over one mango? It is hard to believe you would assault [someone] over one mango and your wife is saying that your son was hungry. Why would you do such a thing?" the judge asked.

"What happened, I got a stringy mango from outside and she come so aggressive inside [and say]] 'Yuh see me go pon the road and come in and nuh food nuh inside'. Me tell her fi easy because I was picking ackee and the one stringy was there. We have East Indian and Julie but I got the stringy from next door and I put it down to eat it in the morning," Facey, 62, explained.

But as the judge listened to the family's plight, she became increasingly concerned.

"Sir, yuh could a lowe dem with the one stringy. This manifestation of love is not how love must look. This is not even about the mango, because one stringy nuh supposed to create dem war here wah in front of me," Judge Cole-Montaque opined.

She requested a social-enquiry report in the matter and sentencing was postponed until June 13.