Victim denies harassing alleged nightclub attacker
A woman who claims her boyfriend's ex glassed her in the face has denied threatening and harassing her in the months before and after the alleged incident.
Tanya Darrell – who has told Supreme Court she views the accused, Wendy Ingemann, as a whore – nonetheless denied sending abusive messages and vandalising her car.
It is alleged that Ingemann, 37, of St. George's parish, hit Ms. Darrell in the face and behind the ear with a glass in Splash nightclub in the early hours of February 10, 2007. She needed plastic surgery for her injuries.
Ingemann denies wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and is on trial before a jury of ten women and two men.
During evidence for the prosecution on Monday, the complainant said she had known Ingemann for around 25 years. She explained that the accused had previously been in a relationship with Tokia Russell, her own boyfriend at the time of the alleged incident in Splash.
Cross-examining Ms. Darrell yesterday, Ingemann's lawyer Elizabeth Christopher outlined the defence case as being that Ingemann had punched her in the jaw – but had not struck her with any weapon. Ms. Darrell denied this.
Ms Christopher also alleged that Ms. Darrell made unpleasant phone calls to Ingemann in February 2006, and from then up to summer 2006 left nasty messages on her phone and sent unpleasant texts. She denied this.
Ms Christopher persisted: "And amongst those messages were threats to stab her and mash up her car."
Ms Darrell replied: "That is incorrect."
The lawyer went on to allege that prior to the incident in Splash, Ms. Darrell also damaged Ingemann's car at the St. George's cricket club on one occasion and made personal remarks about her as she worked behind the bar at Bootsie's comedy club on another. She denied this.
Ms Christopher further suggested that after the incident in Splash, Ms. Darrell wrote the word "whore" across her car bonnet on May 9 this year, when it was parked at the Robin Hood pub, also slicing the front tyre, scratching the car and tearing off the mirrors and wipers. She denied this too.
The second witness to take the stand for the prosecution was Bryant Richards, who was working as a doorman at the now-defunct Splash nightclub in Bermudiana Road on the night in question.
He told the the court a girl who was a regular at the club – but whose name he could not remember yesterday – complained that some girls had thrown a drink over her. She pointed behind him at three girls and as he turned around, he saw an altercation start between them and the complainant.
Mr. Richards explained that he stepped in, while "trying to keep myself from being hit".
As he did so, he said he saw the complainant duck, one of the three girls throw a punch at her, and a glass or bottle with alcohol in it fly past his head from the direction of the trio.
Mr. Richards told the court that after the girl and the trio were taken out of the club by separate doors, he noticed he had blood on the back of his right arm and on his neck. In addition, he said he noticed broken glass on the floor in the area – identifying a photograph shown to him by Crown counsel Robert Welling as a Splash martini glass.
Mr. Richards denied suggestions from Ms. Christopher that events happened "pretty fast" and that he was "pretty confused" about what happened.
Besides being charged with wounding Ms. Darrell with intent to cause her grievous bodily harm, Ingemann has pleaded not guilty to two further charges. The first, possessing a glass as an offensive weapon, stems from her allegedly following Ms. Darrell's friend, Deniqua Robinson, out of Splash and threatening her with the glass.
In addition, it is alleged that she violently resisted attempts by Police Constable Trecia Rose to arrest her afterwards.
The case continues.
