spend 20 days in prison for slapping his alleged ex-girlfriend.

Disney Wade, of Farmstead Lane, yesterday in Magistrates' Court denied assaulting Lavonne Lee on September 23, last year.

Lee, of Bailey's Bay, told the court she was walking through Par-La-Ville Park toward Par-La-Ville Road at abput 2.15 p.m. when she saw Wade whom she described as her ex-boyfriend.

Lee said she was surprised to see Wade whom she claimed to have not seen since she ended their relationship on August 12, last year.

"He told me he was not going to hurt me and he had just wanted to know if I was happy,'' she said, adding that she told Wade he was not supposed to see her or be anywhere near her.

Lee said she tried to walk away from Wade. But she said he kept talking to her, telling her she was not aware of what she was putting him through and how she was hurting him.

As she tried to walk away from him a second time, she said, Wade -- who was standing in front of her -- gripped her around the front of her neck and slapped her on the left side of her face.

Lee said he then walked off and she went to her lawyer's office at Smith, Barnard & Diel on Reid Street.

Both she and her lawyer, Mr. Mark Pettingill, went to Hamilton Police Station where she filed a complaint.

The court heard that Wade was also summoned to the Police Station later that day. But he denied slapping Lee.

Wade, who represented himself, told Acting Magistrate the Wor. John Cooper he was never Lee's boyfriend and she had made up the entire incident.

He said as a furniture installer for A.F. Smith Trading he was working on the fourth floor of Cumberland House at the corner of Wesley and Victoria streets on September 23, 1994.

He said three co-workers, who were not in court yesterday, could vouch for that.

Wade said he only left the building at 2.15 p.m. to meet his girlfriend Jeanann White, of Spring Benny Lane, Sandys, who was bringing him lunch.

He said he talked with White for about five to ten minutes before going back into Cumberland House where he said he remained until his girlfriend called him to tell him he needed to go to the Police station.

But when White took the stand she said she took lunch to Wade around 1 p.m.

and she stayed with him four about an hour and five or ten minutes at Cumberland House where they had lunch.

She said after lunch Wade accompanied her out of the building and they talked for a few minutes.

Both White and Wade said they saw Lee from a distance as they stood outside Cumberland House.

But White also said she saw Wade go back into the building as she left on her bike. She said she was back at work at about 2.15 p.m.

She added that she did not see him again until between 4.30 and 5 p.m.

But she said she received a call about 30 to 45 minutes after she returned to work from P.c. Georgia Belboda.

White, who is a service dispatcher for A.F. Smith Trading, said she contacted Wade on the company's radio to let him know that P.c. Belboda was looking for him.

Under cross-examination from Crown Counsel Ms JoDina Pearman, Wade admitted he had known Lee for some three years. And he said he could have mistaken the time he met his girlfriend for lunch. But he stressed that they were never girlfriend and boyfriend and that he never visited Par-La-Ville Park on September 23, last year.

Asked why Lee would make up such a story, he said: "I think because of my kindness to her she latched on to me. Because I tried to help her she took it on her own initiative that I was her boyfriend. I was more or less a big brother to her.'' Wade added that he did not know why Lee would say he hit her. But he said he stopped "being a big brother to her'' when he found out that she was older than she claimed to be.

Noting the conflicting versions of Wade and Lee's stories, Ms Pearman told Mr.

Cooper: "This amounts to the difficult decision on credibility as you decide whose version you prefer.'' She also pointed out that White was not with Wade at the time the incident was alleged to have taken place.

"If you prefer Miss Lee's version,'' she said, "the time factors indicate that he (Wade) did have time to do this.'' Mr. Cooper said the history between Lee and Wade was not clear. But he noted that Lee testified that she told Wade he was not supposed to see her or be near her. And Mr. Cooper noted that Lee already had a lawyer.

He also noted that White did not corroborate all of Wade's story.

Mr. Cooper pointed out that Wade could have followed Lee to the park after White left him and he noted that Wade did not call any of his co-workers as witnesses.

He said he therefore believed Lee's story.

And while referring to the incident as "the tempest in a teapot'' and "minor assault'', Mr. Cooper stressed to Wade: "I don't condone men striking women.

They have an unfair physical advantage over women.''