Two men, charged with separate assaults on a two-year-old girl and a 36-year-old woman, after videos of the incidents went viral on social media, are closer to coming out of prison.
Dexter Gobin, of Maracas, St Joseph, and Ricardo Jerome, of Oropune Gardens, Piarco, obtained variations to their bail yesterday.
Gobin, who is charged with wilfully assaulting the toddler while attempting to force feed the child a bottle of milk, applied to High Court Judge Norton Jack for his $175,000 bail to be reduced to a more “manageable sum.”
After hearing submissions from Gobin’s lawyer, Fareed Ali, in the Port-of-Spain High Court yesterday, Jack reduced the bail to $100,000.
However, Jack maintained the conditions of his bail initially granted on October 26, which stipulated that he stay away from the victim and her family and that he should report to police three times weekly.
His wife, Yanique Taylor-Gobin, a Jamaican national, was also charged but was denied bail as she was found to have overstayed her time in T&T. She will remain detained at the Immigration Detention Centre in Aripo until the case is determined.
Last night CNC3 reported that the teen who video-taped the incident and her mother have been threatened by a relative of Gobin and were offered protection at a safe house.
Meanwhile, Jerome, an Arouca bar owner and labourer with the Customs and Excise Division, who is accused of assaulting his common-law wife, Ornella Ruth Marchan, at Nella’s Sports bar, in Arima Old Road, last week, also managed to secure a variation of his bail.
Jerome, who was granted $60,000 bail on Monday when he first appeared in court, was unable to access it because of administrative issues at the Arima Magistrates Court. He was due to reappear before Magistrate Debbie-Ann Bassaw yesterday. However, when the case was called in court, Ali, who is also representing him, learnt that his client had not been brought to court by prison authorities.
In his absence, Bassaw agreed to reduce his bail and allow for a cash deposit of $10,000.
Jerome is charged with causing a public disturbance, assault by beating and possession of a weapon. He surrendered to police last week after a short clip, allegedly depicting him attacking his common-law wife with a metal object and then repeatedly kicking her while she was on the ground, went viral.
Despite both men receiving the variations the T&T Guardian understands that neither was able to secure their bail up to late yesterday, effectively forcing them to spend the weekend on remand.
(DA)