SASCHA WIL­SON

For bit­ing a po­lice­man who was guard­ing him at the hos­pi­tal while he was un­der ar­rest, a fish ven­dor has to pay a $3,000 fine and $1,500 in com­pen­sa­tion.

Ken­son Noel plead­ed guilty to caus­ing gre­vi­ous bod­i­ly harm when he ap­peared in the San Fer­nan­do Mag­is­trates. Court .

He told the court that he has since changed his life and has been bap­tised.

Pros­e­cu­tor Sgt Harold Ish­mael said the in­ci­dent took place on Oc­to­ber 29, 2016 at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.

Po­lice con­sta­ble John was guard­ing Noel at the hos­pi­tal when he re­moved Noel’s hand­cuffs on the re­quest of the at­tend­ing doc­tor.

When John at­tempt­ed to hand­cuff him again, Noel bit him on the left fore­arm.

In­ves­ti­ga­tor Cpl Mungroo met Noel at the San Fer­nan­do Po­lice Sta­tion and when he told him about bit­ing in­ci­dent, Noel said, “Of­fi­cer, is a phone the po­lice was try­ing to take from me and meh teeth scrape him. I eh bite him.”

Not­ing that med­ical re­port stat­ed that the in­jury was a hu­man bite which is dif­fer­ent from a scrape, Se­nior Mag­is­tarte Jo-Anne Con­nor in­quired from Noel if he ac­cept­ed that he bit the of­fi­cer.

Noel ad­mit­ted he bit him. Noel said that night he was shot in his back and was at the hos­pi­tal in hand­cuffs. “It hap­pen un­der pain, “ he said.

Noel had sev­er­al pre­vi­ous con­vic­tions for var­i­ous of­fences, nclud­ing lar­ce­ny, re­sist­ing ar­rest, as­sault and dis­or­der­ly be­hav­iour.

He will serve six months in jail if he does not pay the fine and six weeks if he fails to pay the com­pen­sa­tion.

He has two months to pay the mon­ey.