Woman Gets 7 Months After Throwing Perfume Bottle At Ex-Partner; Sentence Suspended.

By Alric Lindsay

A 34-year-old woman has been handed a seven-month suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to assaulting her former partner with a perfume bottle.

Shadene Dawnakay Smith appeared before Magistrate McFarlane in the Summary Court today, November 11, where she was sentenced for one count of assault causing actual bodily harm. The Crown offered no evidence on two additional charges.

The court heard that Smith and the complainant had been in a troubled two-year relationship and were living separately at the time of the incident on August 3, 2025. According to Crown Counsel Kenneth Ferguson, Smith went to the complainant’s residence to discuss the future of their relationship and entered his bedroom, where she found another woman present.

Emotions flared, and Smith threw a perfume bottle that struck the man in the head. Police were called to the scene.

Defence attorney Candia James-Malcolm told the court that the incident was a single, out-of-character act and that her client had caused no grave injury. James-Malcolm emphasized that Smith—who has no previous convictions and is the mother of a 16-year-old—was deeply remorseful, had not attempted to minimize her responsibility, and had proactively sought therapeutic support. She urged the court to consider a non-custodial sentence, such as a conditional discharge or probation order, noting a social inquiry report assessed her at a low risk of re-offending.

However, Magistrate McFarlane ruled that the custodial threshold had been firmly passed. While accepting that the physical harm fell into a lower category, the Magistrate placed the offence in the higher culpability range due to the object used.

“A perfume bottle… any type of bottle… that is a weapon,” Magistrate McFarlane told the defendant. “It places your culpability in the higher range.”

Taking a starting point of 12 months, the court deducted time for Smith’s genuine remorse and applied a 20 percent discount for her guilty plea.

Smith was sentenced to seven months imprisonment, suspended for two years, alongside a supervision order. Under the terms of the order, she must reside in George Town and maintain regular contact with a probation officer. Her bail conditions were lifted, and the court ordered the return of her passport.