Officer charged for assault, must pay $18,000 or go to jail

A police constable may face three months in jail with hard labour if he fails to pay his common-law wife $18,000 within the next three months.

The man was found guilty of assaulting his wife after he appeared before a Port-of-Spain magistrate yesterday, charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The Court heard that six years ago, on May 1 2013, the accused punched the victim and put her in a chokehold at a house in Cocorite. She suffered a broken nose and other injuries to her face.

As a result of his charge, the accused can no longer be a member of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS).