Husband
to get
mental check

RICHARD O'HARA COX was ordered to the Psychiatric Hospital yesterday for evaluation when he returned to the No. 4 Supreme Court.

Justice Dr Sonia Richards, who is presiding, ordered the evaluation and adjourned the matter until Monday.

In June last year, Cox pleaded guilty to unlawfully and maliciously inflicting serious bodily harm on his wife Jacqueline on November 20, 2002.

Cox, of Half Moon Fort, St Lucy, had also been charged with causing serious bodily harm to his wife with intent on the same date, but he denied that charge.

He is represented by attorney Vincent Watson while Principal Crown Counsel Anthony Blackman is prosecuting.

The court had heard that the wife, who had a turbulent relationship with her husband, went to bed around 10 p.m. but awoke in the early hours of November 20, 2002, to a burning bedroom at their Half Moon Fort home.

She jumped through a window and came face to face with her husband.

She already had burns to her lower limbs but was forced to flee again. Her husband, however, caught her and, as he started to beat her, he said: "I told you that I am going to kill you."

The wife escaped because she pretended to be dead. She was later rescued by officers from the Barbados Fire Service.