WESTERN BUREAU:

A St James woman, who flung a bottle at another woman during a quarrel over the victim's boyfriend, got away with a stern warning when she appeared in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court on Monday.

Cadene McFarlane, a housekeeper of Green Pond in Montego Bay, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm against Adoshia Barton and was subsequently admonished and discharged after she explained her case.

The court was told that on January 25, Barton went to McFarlane's home and an argument developed between the two women. McFarlane subsequently flung a bottle and hit Barton, injuring her.

In court, McFarlane told Resident Magistrate Sandria Wong-Small that the argument started when Barton accused her of seeking out her (Barton's) boyfriend.

"The girl came to my gate and cursed me because she said me a call her man and watch him ... me see her with her friend at my gate," McFarlane said of Barton, who was not at court.

"So when you threw the bottle and hit her, was she attacking you? Are you saying that you were defending yourself?" asked RM Wong-Small.

"Yes, ma'am, a she first fling and lick me," said McFarlane.

"If she stay outta road and stay outside your gate, you call the police," RM Wong-Small advised McFarlane.

"I don't want to see you back down here. You are to do everything in your power not to come back down here," the magistrate added, before admonishing and discharging McFarlane.