A TWENTY eight-year-old man was on Tuesday sentenced to nine months in prison for assaulting and threatening his reputed wife.

He appeared at the Blairmont Magistrate’s Court where he received three months in prison for choking his reputed wife and six months for threatening her with a knife. Magistrate Rhondell Weever handed down the sentence on Regan Garette,a cane harvester of Cotton Tree Village,West Coast Berbice,after she found him guilty of the two offences committed on January 29th last.

Led by Prosecutor,Police Corporal Racquel Mars,the virtual complainant said that herself and Garette lived in the same home but on the day in question she decided to go to her father’s home to spend the night because she knew that Garette had gone to a wedding house, where she expected him to consume alcohol, after which, on returning home in a drunken state he would attack and beat her.

She said that the man showed up at her father’s home and as was expected,was under the influence. He demanded that she go home with him and she refused. She said she even invited him to spend the night at her father’s home, but he became infuriated. He accused her of being unfaithful and rushed towards her and grabbed her by the neck with both hands. While he was choking her,a female relative intervened and he was forced to let her go.

She said that on being thwarted,Garette ran into the kitchen, grabbed a knife and lunged at her. Largely because he was so intoxicated, she managed to escape. She then called the police, who responded promptly by visiting the home and arresting the inebriated man.

At The Blairmont Magistrate’s Court yesterday,Garette pleaded not guilty to both charges of assault and threatening behaviour. He,however,failed to convince the Magistrate of his innocence but was granted some measure of leniency in that he would only serve six months in jail since the two sentences would be allowed to run concurrently.