Chief Magistrate condemns violent behavior and issues strong warning after man damages woman's phone and assaults her

“You are never allowed to put your hand on a woman because she made a choice you did not like.”

Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes gave that advice to 21-year-old Tyreek Shackile Worrell on Monday for his “barbaric” behaviour of damaging a woman’s cellular phone and bursting her lip by slapping her after she refused to give him access to her device.

The School Lane, Halls Road, St Michael resident will now be housed on the remand block at Dodds until next month to “ponder on” his actions.

“It’s about time that you all get the message that this type of behaviour will not be tolerated,” the chief magistrate told the young man.

Worrell pleaded guilty before the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court to damaging a cellular phone belonging to Tashania Adams on August 15 and assaulting her, causing her actual harm.

Station Sergeant Crishna told the court that the two met via Instagram, and after several months, exchanged telephone numbers, following which a friendship began.

On the mentioned date, Adams was walking along the road when Worrell approached her. They spoke for some time before she agreed to go to his house.

While there, he asked to see her phone and she refused. Worrell then took the device from Adams’ pocket and slammed it on the ground, damaging it. He then slapped her numerous times in the face, splitting her lip.

In his version of what occurred, Worrell told Chief Magistrate Weekes that he and Adams had agreed to meet, following which she went to his house.

“My cell phone ring and she ask who that calling . . . . From there, the commotion start, and me and she get in an argument about the cell phone. Mine ring, she ask me to see mine and I asked to see hers,” Worrell told the court.

When asked why he damaged the device, he replied: “She was unlocking it and locking it back, so I get frustrated and hit it in the ground. Out of frustration, I just hit it because she won’t let me in the phone.”

He added that he believed Adams was hiding something.

“How dare you! It is her phone . . . . She has the right to privacy . . . . She doesn’t belong to you . . . . You met her on Instagram . . . . You do not know the woman, and because she would not let you inside her phone, you decide you will slap [her] up,” Weekes said as he addressed the first-time offender and queried where he had learned that behaviour.

Worrell responded by saying that he had made a mistake.

“You think that is a mistake? It is her phone. It is her property. [She] is not your property. She is free to do what she wants. You are never allowed to put your hands on a woman because she made a choice you do not like. . . . This is not 1850. This is not the Wild West. In 2023, with all the information out there, . . . [you all] are still foolish to believe you can put your hands on a woman. You need to understand that your behaviour is barbaric; it is for the jungle,” Chief Magistrate Weekes said as he remanded Worrell to Dodds Prison until September 7.