BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – HAVING pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm, calypsonian Tonicia ‘Queen Anastasia’ Martin would have to wait until May 10, 2016 to find out what her fate would be.
She recently appeared before the Basseterre Court of Justice accused of burning her 11-year-old child in August 2013. She was reportedly left at home to babysit her twin toddler brothers when, after attempting to prepare them a meal, one of the boys got burnt.
A chilling account of the incident published by WINNFM explained that having discovered that the child was burnt, Martin began beating on the 11-year-old after which she burnt her with a heated pot spoon.
“When Martin returned home that evening the girl told her what had happened and she became enraged. Martin began punching the daughter in her head and about her body. She then beat the child with a broom, and when it broke, she continued to beat the child with piece of the broomstick until that too broke. She also hit the girl in her head with a pot.The girl ran out of the house and tried to call to a neighbor for help but Martin dragged the girl back inside and asked her if she wanted to ‘see how burn feel’. The mother heated a pot spoon on the fire and burned the girl on her arms, chest and feet.”
SKNVibes understands that both the 11-year-old and the injured twin were taken to the Joseph N. France General Hospital for treatment.
Both the prosecution and Martin’s defence counsel addressed the court and expressed their thoughts on whether or not a custodial sentence should be imposed.
It is reported that the fact that Martin has a two-year-old child is one of the circumstances which the Court has to take into consideration when passing sentence.
As such, the Court ordered a psychiatric evaluation to ascertain whether it is appropriate for the child to remain in her care and “an updated social inquiry report regarding continued counseling for her emotional and anger issues” according to WINNFM’s report.
