Fight over PSV driver lands woman in court

USUALLY when the women are fighting, the man over whom they are coming to blows is nowhere around.

But on Wednesday, the subject of two girls' attention, a minibus driver, was not only present when one slapped the other, but was the centre of attention when the two of them appeared in court.

Tashara Sabrina Faye Phillips, 21, of Brighton, Black Rock, St Michael, was in the Bridgetown Traffic Court where she admitted she assaulted 17-year-old Leann Waterman on Tuesday.

Phillips has two children for Corey Pilgrim, while Waterman is pregnant for him. Both stood opposite each other in court.

And so, said Prosecutor Sergeant Glenda Carter, when Phillips got in the bus which Pilgrim was driving and saw Waterman in the front seat, she began to quarrel with Pilgrim.

As she was getting out, she slapped Waterman in her face.

Pilgrim immediately stopped the bus, got out and asked Phillips why she had slapped Waterman. Both of them eventually got back in the bus, which Pilgrim drove to Black Rock Police Station.

However, Phillips continued her fighting ways and it took a number of men who were on board to restrain her. During the struggle, Waterman was hit in her stomach.

But Phillips told the court that Pilgrim, whom she conceded was a good father, turned up at her house professing his love for her and saying "he ain't sure the baby is his".

It was at this point that Magistrate Christopher Birch halted the girl's explanation.

"I think this is a case where the man need to face the consequences," he said as he ordered that Pilgrim be immediately summoned to the court.

Half an hour later when Pilgrim arrived, Phillips picked back up her explanation.

She said to her surprise, when she got in the van, she saw Waterman in the front seat.

"So I start quarrelling but he ain't answer. When he get in Eagle Hall, I was getting off and she fly up and hit me so I slap she," Phillips said.

The girl said it was untrue that Waterman was hit in the stomach and it was more likely she got struck on her foot.

Waterman, when it was her turn, said after Phillips hit her in her eye, she started to "fly off" my hand.

She then got into a scuffle with Phillips' best friend, while Phillips was scuffling with the men on the bus.

"This is not the first time she interfere with me," said Waterman as she listed a number of instances where Phillips went to her job.

Through it all, Pilgrim was standing in the court with his head bowed.

"From Day 1, when she [Phillips] find out I was talking to her [Waterman], she didn't like it. But I don't know why she should be surprise, like she ain't throwing it in my face that she is be with my friends," he said.

"You do realise," Magistrate Christopher Birch told Pilgrim, "that you are going to have to put up with this for years to come.

"I think you need to keep the two young women apart," the magistrate added. "I don't know how you're going to achieve it but. . ."

The magistrate then turned to the young women and said: "There is only one man in the history of this planet that was worth dying for. He," said Magistrate Birch, pointing to Pilgrim, "surely isn't Jesus, yet the two of you are willing to disrupt public transportation over him."

In the end, Magistrate Birch ordered Phillips to compensate Waterman to the tune of $1 500 in three months or spend three months in prison.

The magistrate also placed Phillips on two years' probation.