Nowhere to ‘Hyde’
Nowhere to ‘Hyde’ . Nowhere to ‘Hyde’
The Jamaica Observer
Matthew Hyde

MATTHEW Hyde, the 21-year-old university student who pleaded guilty to holding his ex-girlfriend captive and tortured her in 2023, is expected to know his fate today when Justice Carolyn Tie-Powell hands down his sentence.

The woman was rescued by campus police from Hyde’s dorm room on the George Alleyne Hall at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus after being held captive at least three days in February 2023.

During the ordeal she was subject to burns with an iron about her back, buttocks, breasts, and arms. She also was subject to beatings with a belt and Hyde’s fists.

According to submissions read in court, after burning her Hyde reportedly said, “Let me appraise my artwork,” and when she was allowed to take a cold shower by Hyde he reportedly told her, “you should be thanking me for this”.

The young woman reportedly got to a device and sent a message after which she was rescued.

“I thought I was going to be killed. I gave up on trying to survive as I thought he was never going to stop,” the young woman said in her victim impact statement.

She was 19 at the time, Hyde was 20.

In September 2024, Hyde plead guilty to seven counts — one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, one count of false imprisonment, a count of malicious communication and four counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Hyde’s attorney Patrick Peterkin, in lengthy submissions, asked Justice Tie-Powell to restrict the sentence to at least three years or no more than four on account of Hyde’s guilty plea, history of abuse, mental health diagnoses, his youth, remorse, and the one year and 10 months he has already spent in prison.

Final submissions in the criminal case were presented by the Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Ashtelle Steele on December 9.

While Peterkin argued that Hyde was remorseful and redeemable, with support for his claims from psychiatric evaluations, Steele argued that his actions were premeditated on some level and could amount to torture.

Also presented to the judge for consideration was the extensive and permanent, in some cases, scarring on the young woman’s body and the mental emotional and financial toll on the complainant who had to pay medical bills in the thousands.

Tie-Powell asked for time to review the cases put forward by Peterkin, and Steele’s rebuttal as she prepared to hand down a sentence this afternoon.

In the meantime, Obika Gordon, the attorney representing the woman, has said they are hoping for “a sentence that fits the abuse, torture, and assault that she suffered”.

He also revealed the young woman will be filing a civil case against Hyde for a significant sum.

Hyde’s family has reportedly already paid the woman $2 million but this is less than half of what she is asking for in the civil case.
Jamaica
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2024-12-17
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Nowhere to ‘Hyde’
Nowhere to ‘Hyde’