Police because she thought she had to in order to get compensation.

Sherrylynn Byfield was testifying in the Supreme Court trial of her Jamaican husband, Carlton St. Aubyn Byfield, 25, who is charged with attempting to kill her with a machete on February 8.

He has also pleaded not guilty to unlawfully wounding his wife with the intent to do grievous bodily harm and unlawfully wounding her.

Mrs. Byfield fought back tears as she said she did not want to give evidence.

Puisne Judge Vincent Meerabux told her she was under oath and had to give her evidence.

She said all she could remember was being home with her husband when they began fighting.

She was later taken to hospital after he allegedly chopped her with a machete on the back and front of her head and on her wrists.

Defence lawyer Archie Warner asked why she did not give a statement to Police until October 4.

She said she did not want to give a statement and only changed her mind after speaking to her lawyer, Keren Lomas.

She said she was told she had to give a statement before she could claim compensation.

Mrs. Byfield said she went to the Attorney General's Chambers on Friday where she gave a statement.

And she said she thought she would not have to appear in court as a witness after giving the statement.

She said everything she told the Police was true to her knowledge.

And one reason she did not want to give a statement was because Mr. Byfield had been a good husband, she said.

She said she knew he did not mean to attack her.

But she denied not wanting to give a Police statement because she did not want her dirty linen aired in public.

"It don't make no difference to me,'' she said.

Mrs. Byfield denied Mr. Warner's suggestion that she was a unfaithful wife who had cheated on her husband constantly.

She said her male companions were only friends.

After six months of marriage she started "hanging out'' with her friends, sometimes without Mr. Byfield, she said.

She said men called the house but she never kept it a secret from her husband.

It was about this time, she continued, that the marriage began to break down.

Mr. Warner asked if she gave her husband two different venereal diseases.

She said she was not infected herself and had only been treated for a yeast infection.

Mr. Warner then suggested her doctor had treated her for chlamydia and she had discussed this with her girlfriend but Mrs. Byfield denied this.

Lisa Swan, a neighbour at Victoria Terrace Apartments on Princess Street, testified that Mr. Byfield often came and talked to her about his marital problems.

He told her he had contracted venereal diseases from his wife.

On February 7 he was crying and told her that his wife wanted him out and she recommended he go see a lawyer.

She said she asked Mrs. Byfield why she wanted him out and "she said she was tired of him''.