A police officer facing a common assault charge for allegedly slapping his adult daughter repeatedly is seeking a High Court order to remove his case from the Magistrates’ Court and to quash his interdiction by former Police Commissioner David Morris.
In July 2014, Joel Gumbs, a police inspector living in Fat Hogs Bay, became embroiled in an argument with his daughter about “family matters,” according to allegations read in a February court hearing.
That argument eventually became physical, leading to Mr. Gumbs allegedly slapping his daughter several times, squeezing her face, pushing her down, and threatening to use his position on the police force against her, prosecutors said.
Mr. Gumbs has returned to Magistrates’ Court multiple times since his February hearing, and he has been ordered to attend the Partnership for Peace Programme while on $60,000 bail.
His trial has yet to start, though, and he is now asking via a judicial review application for his case to be removed from the lower court altogether.
According to his claim form, he’s seeking to have his case removed and his interdiction quashed because his daughter has written the police commissioner, the Magistrates’ Court, and the director of public prosecutions asking that the charge be dropped.
The claim form also notes that when alleged common-assault victims ask for charges to be withdrawn, the court often obliges.
Finally, the form states that the interdicted inspector has been to court five times and has had his case adjourned for report on four of those occasions.
Chamber hearings for the judicial review application are scheduled for this month, but no trial date has been set.
Attempts to contact Mr. Gumbs through his attorney, Dancia Penn, were unsuccessful.