WHEN RESIDENT Magistrate Lorna Gayle handed down a three-year suspended sentence to Jermaine Beckford on December 9, 2008, the verdict almost went unnoticed considering that Beckford had stabbed Oneka Grant, the mother of his child, more than 140 times in September 2007 while trying to kill her because she rebuffed his attempts to rekindle their ended relationship.

The story had made headlines in most national papers and spawned an award-winning series on domestic violence aired by Nationwide News Network.

Grant says the verdict was a slap in the face. "It seems as if they swept it under the carpet, like it was just a cut instead of 140 stabs," Grant said of the verdict. "But I have to now be watching my back."

She is disappointed by the verdict, especially since Beckford, who was arrested the same day the incident occurred, on September 18, 2007, was released on bail in November that year and has been free ever since.

pleaded guilty

Grant is also cut up by the fact that he told her that his lawyer was going to have him plead insanity and that she would be dead before 2008 was over.

She said evidence was presented that Beckford was bi-polar so she was not really shocked by the verdict.

"I was not surprised since he had pleaded guilty and he spent some time in Bellevue," she said, explaining that Beckford's lawyer managed to get the charge downgraded to unlawful wounding.

During the 15 months since the ordeal, Grant has gone through rehab to regain use of her fingers which were almost severed during the attack. She has also had to deal with pain over each eye where Beckford stabbed her. She has also had problems with keloids that have formed over the 140 stab wounds that have, for the most part, healed.

She has made progress in reco-very, but one of her fingers is still painful to the touch. She still has difficulty holding things but with the help of rehabilitation work, she is now able to straighten her left little finger, which was almost severed when she tried to prevent Beckford from slicing through her throat.

medication

She has stopped taking medication prescribed to help her heal because she can't afford the $25,000 it costs each month.

"I don't know of any other court in any sensible society where that verdict could have been handed down but in ours. Because of the shambles that it is apparently in, there is room for that and it's sad."

Attorney-at-law Clyde Williams while not as severe on the Jamaican justice system, believes there is need for reform.

He explains that in the Jamaican justice system there is no right of appeal to the Crown in cases such as Grant's.

He describes Jamaica as being in the legal backwaters, as in other Caribbean countries like Antigua and the British Virgin Islands, the Crown has the right to appeal on points of law.

Inspector Davis of the Waterford Police, the station where Beckford was arrested, while acknowledging that the judge has the final say, believes that if she was to have ruled on the matter Beckford would be behind bars today.

THIS IS TOTAL f**kERY!!!!