The wife of a man who walked free after assaulting her is furious with the Department of Public Prosecutions for allowing the case to go ahead in court without important medical evidence.

And although the Director of Public Prosecutions said the prosecutor asked for an adjournment in court to buy time to get that evidence, the prosecutor in fact made no such request.

Michael George Demoura, 40, pleaded guilty to the charges of using threatening words to his wife, Sherline Demoura, and causing her grievous bodily harm on September 10 this year.

Police reports stated he threatened her with a curtain pole and punched her in the face several times, finally rupturing a blood vessel. However when Acting Senior Magistrate Carlisle Greaves asked for a medical report to confirm the extent of the injuries, Crown counsel Koshea Scott said her office had not yet received the report.

Without that evidence, Mr. Greaves could not confirm that Demoura had caused his wife grievous bodily harm and was forced to let him walk with a $750 fine.

"$750 is nothing," said Mrs. Demoura. "I've still got the bruises underneath my eye and chin and he's walked off with this. That's like telling me it's okay for him to go around and do it."

When Police interviewed her after the incident and discussed her medical report, she said she was never asked to sign a waiver allowing the hospital to release the report.

Police came to her job and took four photos of her injuries, she said, and then told her they would wait for the results from the hospital to see if her jaw was broken.

However Mrs. Demoura heard nothing from the Police until almost two weeks later - and then only because she contacted the Policeman in charge of her own initiative to find out what was going on. She was then informed that her husband would be appearing in court on the next day, Wednesday.

That night, at around 8 p.m., Mrs. Dumoura returned home to find the waiver that she had to sign allowing her medical records to be released from the hospital in her mailbox. "Of course, by then it was too late," she said.

Even so, she signed the waiver and took it to the Hamilton Police Station on her way to work the next morning. However when she arrived at the Police station, she was told that the Policeman in charge was on leave and she would have to leave the waiver in an envelope until he returned - which would not be until Friday morning.

This in spite of the fact that her husband appeared in court on Wednesday morning.

"I have been very concerned about what happened," Director of Public Prosecutions Kulendra Ratneser told The Royal Gazette. In fact, he ordered a report into the matter yesterday.

As a result of what he was initially hearing of the contents of the report, Mr. Ratneser said: "It is very likely there will be an appeal."

When Ms Scott went to court on Wednesday morning, he said, she had asked for an adjournment into the matter because she did not yet have the medical report.

When he was informed that in fact Ms Scott did not ask for an adjournment in the matter in Plea Court on Wednesday, he said that was what he had heard, although he did not yet have a written report in hand.

"In any event the court must take the medical report into account," said Mr. Ratneser, adding that for that reason alone the Crown would appeal. Ms Scott could not be contacted by The Royal Gazette yesterday.