Ontario man accused of slashing wife’s throat in Jamaica
FALMOUTH, JAMAICA—A Canadian tourist in Jamaica has been charged with attempted murder with police accusing him of slitting his wife’s throat after she told him she wanted to separate.
The attack allegedly took place in a rental car, and police claimed the accused then invented a phoney carjacking story.
Police Supt. Linette Williams-Martin says Paul Martin, 43, of Ajax, Ont., appeared Tuesday for a preliminary court hearing in Falmouth, a northern coastal community near the tourist resorts of Montego Bay and Ocho Rios.
Williams-Martin alleges that the accused cut his wife’s throat after she told him she wished to separate.
His wife, Cathy Lee Martin, underwent surgery after the Dec. 23 attack and has been released from a local hospital.
A Canadian Foreign Affairs spokeswoman declined comment Tuesday.
On Monday, Foreign Affairs spokesman Claude Rochon would only say: “What I can tell you is that Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada is aware of reports of an incident involving Canadians in Jamaica.”
“Canadian consular officials in Jamaica are working closely with local authorities to gather additional information, and are in a position to provide consular assistance.”
A Jamaican police officer who did not want to be named said Monday that Martin was arrested shortly his wife was found with her throat slashed in a car parked off to the side on Stewart Castle road. The pair were there on vacation.
The officer said they were alerted to problems after a passing taxi driver saw two people struggling on the side of the road in a car.
The driver left to notify police, then returned to find the woman with her throat cut and drove her to hospital.
The officer said the accused came to the police station shortly afterward saying that he had been out sightseeing with his wife when they pulled over to the side of the road so he could get out and take some pictures.
“He said when he came back he saw a man inside the vehicle behind his wife,” said the officer.
“He said the man told him to drive to another location, and while driving (the carjacker) slit his wife’s throat. He came to the police station and gave his story ...
he thought she was dead.”
The officer wouldn’t reveal where Cathy Martin is now.
“She’s at an undisclosed location,” he said. “She’s with family and friends.”
http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario...sed-of-slashing-wife-s-throat-in-jamaica?bn=1
