Barbara Gayle,
Staff Reporter
A building contractor who was accused of beating his former girlfriend and then pushing her out of a moving motor car has been freed of assault occasioning grievous bodily harm by a jury.
Allen Campbell, 48, of Cherry Gardens, St Andrew, denied the charge and told the jury that the woman concocted the story because he told her he was going to marry someone else.
The Crown alleged that on February 27, 2003, Campbell assaulted Charmaine Green, a 41-year-old cosmetologist with whom he had a relationship for 13 years.
Unable to walk
Evidence was given at the trial in the Home Circuit Court that Campbell took Green to Bridgeport, St Catherine, on the pretext that he wanted to talk to her about the relationship. He boxed and kicked her and when she became unconscious, he dragged her into his car. While Campbell was driving along the Causeway in St Catherine, he pushed Green out of the car.
Green said because of the injuries she suffered during the incident, she was unable to walk without the aid of medication or a walking stick.
A doctor who said he examined Green on the day of the incident said she had bruises to her face. An orthopaedic specialist said under cross-examination by defence lawyers George Soutar and Peter Champagnie that he examined Green, sent her for X-rays and other tests and could find no cause for the complaint as to her difficulty in walking.
Campbell said in his defence that he did not assault Green. He said he was friendly with her for 13 years before the incident. He said the reason she concocted the story and had him arrested was because he told her he was going to marry someone else.
He said he had always been kind to Green and had even given her a Mercedes-Benz motor car and paid the rent for her business places and home.
The jury retired for about an hour and found Campbell not guilty of the charge.