Englishman to be sentenced after slapping woman on her buttocks in Barbados

A magistrate has told an Englishman that while Barbados may be a small island, members of its population do not have “small minds”.

Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant has since informed 44-year-old James Patrick O’Rouke, of 50 Peach Road, Willehall, West Midlands that he would be sentenced after he pleaded guilty to unlawfully assaulting a woman and resisting arrest.

The court heard that on May 19, O’Rouke and Charmaine Alleyne were at a deli near the ATM machine which the accused was using.

They struck up a conversation and during that time the accused reached over and placed money in her cleavage. She attempted to return it to him, but he refused. He then made a purchase at the cash register and as he was leaving, slapped the woman on her buttocks.

The incident was reported to police and the Englishman resisted efforts by the law enforcement officials to place him under arrest.

O’Rouke told the Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday that he had nothing to say, while Alleyne, who said she did not know the visitor, felt “embarrassed”.

After the facts were presented the magistrate said “I am shocked. I am shocked, honestly, I am really, shocked,” and informed the accused that he would be remanded for sentencing.

But she had a message for him and other visitors to Barbados.

“I am going to warn you and any other visitor who comes to this island. We may be a small island but we do not have small minds,” she said, to which O’Rouke, who has been allowed to stay in Barbados for three months,  responded “we were just joking.”

But the magistrate was not amused saying “you think this is a joke. You disrespected a lady and you think this is a joke. If this is how you behave in your country, this is not how we behave here. You understand that?”