Is it fear, threats, whatever the reason the complainant in the case involving involving popular dancehall deejay Bounty Killer, accused of using a hammer, a gold chain and mosquito zapper to beat her, was yesterday postponed for January 11, after she failed to show up for the trial.

The entertainer, whose real name is Rodney Price, was arrested in September on a charged of unlawful wounding following an alleged incident at his Oaklands apartment in Kingston, where he reportedly attacked his 19-year-old lover, Raquel Smith.

When the case was called up yesterday morning in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court, several calls for Smith went unanswered as a result the matter was delayed for a few minutes.

Price's attorney Christopher Townsend later informed Resident Magistrate Lorna Shelly Williams that he had been told by Smith's attorney Terrence Ballentine on the last occasion that he and his client might not be in the island for the beginning of the trial.

As a result, the magistrate rescheduled the trial for next year and issued a bench warrant for Smith. Townsend then asked the magistrate if his client's passport, which was taken by police as a condition of his $500,000 bail, could be returned.

However, he was instructed to return to court on November 26 to make the application.

On the last court date in October, Smith indicated through her lawyer, that she wanted the matter to be sent to mediation.

Ballentine said his client and Price had been together for three years and he had never hit her until the incident. He said Smith wanted to continue her relationship with the deejay.

However, Magistrate Shelly Williams firmly dismissed that notion.

Price's bail was extended.