Yesterday, 16-year-old Jaheem Watson, found himself in the District “A” Magistrates’ Court, where he admitted he assaulted conductor Jamal Gibson on Wednesday, December 6 and again on Thursday, December 7.
The conductor will give his side next Friday, and the boy has been banned from catching his minibus until then.
The boy’s father, who was in court yesterday, denied that his son was a troublemaker.
“I don’t get no complaints for him,” he said.
“When I asked, he told me that the fellow [the conductor] throw a stone at him and that yesterday [Thursday], he saw the fellow fidgeting and he throw a stone at him,” the father told the court.
It was a story backed up by the teenager, who said he was in the van and the conductor had pelted him with a bottle as he was going home.
“I was walking the other time and he was fidgeting and I run towards him,” the boy claimed.
But the facts, which were outlined by prosecutor Sergeant Cameron Gibbons, told a different story.
They showed that minibus B142 was passing Trents, St James, where the boy tried to board it. The conductor refused to allow him on because of his previous bad behaviour. The boy then took up a number of rocks to throw at the bus but the driver moved off.
At Eagle Hall, the boy got out of another vehicle and as B142 stopped in the area, he pushed open the bus’ door and struck the conductor in his face over his eye.
He then ran, but not before throwing some rocks in the direction of the conductor.
The following day, said the prosecutor, the conductor was standing at a bus stop in Barbarees Hill, when the boy and his friends started to pelt him with stones. The conductor, who feared for his safety, took a bus, went to Black Rock Police Station and reported the matter. The conductor was then taken on a street parade and pointed out the boy.
“That is a completely different story,” Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant then noted.
“I gine tell you what happened from beginning to end. I will tell you the truth,” the boy said.
He then told the court he would usually catch the “first van”, but when he tried to board B142, the conductor only allowed girls to get on.
“If you conduct yourself how you know to conduct yourself, you will not be refused on the bus,” the court warned him.
In the end, the magistrate ordered him to stay off B142, placed him on a daily curfew from 6:30 p.m. to 9 a.m. and released him on $2 000 bail with a surety.
The parties return to court on Friday.
It was in November that some PSV operators indicated they would no longer be transporting schoolchildren. This, they indicated, was in an attempt to stop the lawlessness on their buses.
However, Roy Raphael, the chairman of the Alliance of Owners of Public Transport, warned them against the stance, saying that while he received complaints about the behaviour of schoolchildren, PSV drivers were mandated by law to transport them. (HLE)
