A man walked free from court after a jury cleared him of chopping a career criminal in a vicious sword attack.

Although there was no doubt that someone slashed convicted bank robber Michael Dillas, 52, with a blade on February 8, 2008, Fredjuan Hughes, 30, had maintained it was not him.

He insisted that Mr. Dillas wrongly accused him in a bid to blackmail him out of money, and claimed that he and his girlfriend caught some of the extortion attempts on secret tape.

On one of the recordings played to the jury during the case, a voice said by the defence to be Mr. Dillas, asked for cash and remarked: "It's up to you. I'll go right up there one time and f*****g tell the people who done it. You don't have to worry about none of that s**t, you know what I mean."

During three days of evidence at the Supreme Court this week, the jury heard Mr. Dillas allege that Mr. Hughes attacked him while he was near his home trying to return a wallet to a friend.

He said Mr. Hughes may have believed he tried to come on to his girlfriend two weeks before, when he realised Mr. Dillas had loaned her his i-Pod.

The attack left Mr. Dillas with severe lacerations to his arms and hands. He told the Police that he recognised Mr. Hughes from his old neighbourhood in Spanish Point and successfully picked Mr. Hughes out of a line-up parade.

He claimed during this week's court case that Mr. Hughes and his girlfriend had tried to offer him money to drop the ensuing charge of assault causing grievous bodily harm that Mr. Hughes faced.

However, Mr. Hughes gave a drastically different account of events – which the jury appeared to accept on Friday, clearing his name in a unanimous verdict after one hour of deliberations.

Mr. Hughes said he was at home all night with his girlfriend, Shernelle Moniz, 25, and their two children on the evening of the attack. He claimed that Mr. Dillas was falsely accusing him, and had tried to extort $20,000 in return for dropping the charges.

His lawyer, Saul Froomkin QC, played the jury a recording that apparently showed Mr. Dillas trying to do so during a conversation with Mr. Hughes and Ms Moniz.

Mr. Dillas – who participated in a $37,500 heist at the Somerset branch of Bank of Bermuda in 1997 – has convictions dating back to 1986 including drug possession. Medics listed him as being on heroin when he was admitted to hospital on the night he was injured.

The jury heard how Mr. Hughes too has a criminal past, including convictions for hitting a man over the head with a pipe and assaulting Police officers. He has been out of trouble for nine years.

Mr. Hughes had been in custody on and off since being arrested on February 14 last year. He was on remand during the course of his trial. He showed little emotion after the verdict was returned on Friday.