A MAN has been convicted of assault and domestic abuse at the end of a week-long trial.
After around an hour of deliberation, Jurats considering the evidence against Elliot Victor Potier Gomes returned guilty verdicts for the majority of the six counts involving a female victim.
The court’s decision came on Friday, after five days’ evidence about incidents involving the two Islanders.
Gomes (39) was found guilty of two of the three assault charges he faced, as well as on a charge of domestic abuse. A not-guilty verdict was returned for a count of grave and criminal assault, with an alternative finding of guilty for assault on this count.
During the trial, the court had heard that the abuse carried out by Gomes included isolating the woman from others, examining her mobile phone, accusing her of being overweight, refusing to leave her property, demanding sex and threatening to rape her.
The victim was also subjected to an intimate inspection by Gomes, who used a phone torch in an attempt to corroborate his suspicions about her having slept with a colleague and stolen cocaine from him. Crown Advocate Carla Carvalho, prosecuting, said that within months of meeting Gomes, the victim had begun injecting drugs – including crystal meth and cocaine.
The victim’s mother described how her daughter had “totally changed” after meeting Gomes, becoming quick-tempered, distancing herself from her mother, changing the way she dressed and often being short of money.
The court also heard the woman’s description of how she was taunted by Gomes when he sent pictures to her of himself and another woman naked in bed in his house in Jersey while she had been on a trip to London with a friend.
A recording was played of a 999 call made by the mother immediately after a previous phone call with her daughter, during which she had heard a heated argument with Gomes and realised that her daughter was holding a knife.
The woman admitted being in possession of a knife during the argument, but said this had resulted from her having been chopping limes when the dispute escalated.
In his closing speech, Advocate Alexander English, defending, expressed doubts over the credibility of the complainant and two other prosecution witnesses.
The defence lawyer claimed that rather than Gomes exerting coercive control over his partner, the reality was that it was the other way round.
On the direction of Commissioner John Saunders, presiding, Gomes was found not guilty of attempting to pervert the court of justice.
He was remanded in custody and will return to court for a sentencing date to be fixed on 13 February.
Jurats Opfermann and Entwistle were sitting.
