Sex worker gets $300, told she can sue beater

Senior Magistrate Tamia Richards yesterday ordered Garry Smith to pay a total $6,300 for stealing from and beating a sex worker who he claimed did not give him his money’s worth of pleasure.

The senior magistrate slapped Smith with a $4,000 fine for assault occasion actual bodily harm, and another $2,000 for theft.

He was given until September to pay the monies.

The senior magistrate further ordered the 43-year-old offender to repay the $300 he lifted from the sex worker’s purse, adding that the repayment must be made forthwith.

She did not order compensation for the beating Smith reportedly delivered, but she noted that the woman could sue Smith if she so desires.

The Incident 

Reports are that, on May 16 last year, Smith visited the complainant’s workplace at Five Star Entertainment on Pickering Street and paid her $100 for a ‘private dance’.

The two retreated to a private room at the club to do the deed.

After about 20 minutes – which the court heard is the usual time allocated for private dances – another employee at the establishment knocked the room door to indicate that the occupants’ time had expired.

Smith reportedly was not satisfied with the length of time, and so he requested additional time or his money back.

The sex worker turned down the request. She told Smith that he would have to pay additional money for more time.

The court also heard that the two had a quarrel, which escalated into a fight. Smith later retrieved $300 from the sex worker’s purse, and then fled the club.

The woman, who has left the British Virgin Islands since the incident, suffered multiple abrasions to her right arm and shoulder. She was also left with a lesion on the forehead.

Meanwhile, when Senior Magistrate Richards handed down the guilty verdict earlier this month, she said she had found that the complainant in the case was a ‘sex worker’ and not a ‘bartender’ as she (the complainant) had claimed.

In explaining one of the reasons for the guilty verdict, the senior magistrate earlier this month also used the analogy of purchasing something from a store.

“If I went into RiteWay and buy an apple but the apple is not sweet enough, that doesn’t mean I have the right to [take back my money],” she said.

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