from an American visitor whom he said also insulted him racially.

"I never intended to use it though and I never told him, `I'll cut your jugular','' said Sandys Parish resident Burnell Howard Wentworth Cross as he was cross-examined by Crown counsel Larry Mussenden in Magistrates' Court.

Cross, 57, is charged with four counts, including threatening behaviour, offensive words, racially motivated assault and possession of an offensive weapon, stemming from the incident which took place on July 5 last year at Horseshoe Bay car park.

He was arrested by Police after 54-year-old cruise ship passenger Frank Farley alleged that Cross held a knife to his throat after the tourist accidentally hit his taxi with the door of another cab.

On Monday, taxi driver Rupert Macdonald Williams, who was about to take Mr.

Farley and his party from the beach to the cruise ship Zenith , testified that he heard Cross call the New York City resident "white trash'' and also that he threatened him with a steak knife.

"He said to him, `I'll cut your jugular,'' Mr. Williams claimed. "I don't think it touched the man but he held it there for about a minute.'' Taking the stand yesterday in his own defence, Cross, of Scott's Hill Road, presented his side of the story.

He described how he had been eating strawberries in the back of his station-wagon taxi when the incident began.

And he said, although he was "upset'' at Mr. Farley for accidentally hitting his car with the taxi door, it was the American who "insulted and assaulted'' him.

"After he apologised a second time,'' Cross said, "I told him `Sorry doesn't pay the bills'. Then Mr. Farley told me that I needed him.

"I grumbled and got out to look at the damage but, all of a sudden, he started calling me a `piece of s***'. I told him he should go, but he just continued saying it over and over again.'' Mr. Williams, who was sitting in the driver's seat, then apparently threatened that if Cross kept talking he would report him to TCD.

"I couldn't understand why he would do this when this white tourist was continuing to call me a piece of black s***,'' Cross said.

"Then Mr. Farley decided to get out. He's about 250 pounds and has a protruding stomach. He kept insulting me and pushed his stomach into mine.'' In cross-examination by Mr. Mussenden, Cross admitted to calling Mr. Farley a "white f*****''.

"I might have said that because he was assaulting and battering me. He was f****** with me, pushing me around like some little n***** boy.'' He said to Mr. Mussenden: "I'm not a n***** boy, I'm a man, and if you started f***** with me like that, I'd say the same to you.'' At this, Senior Magistrate Will Francis interrupted, saying: "Let me just tell you Mr. Cross, I have been observing you and you have been using profane language to a Crown counsel.'' Asked by Mr. Mussenden why he did not just walk away, Cross said: "If I'd done that he could have damaged me terribly. He could have killed me.'' Cross also said he thought Mr. Farley was acting like "white trash'' during the incident.

Asked if he used a knife in the incident, he said: "I never had a knife. I had a plastic spoon and I held it up and told him not to f*** with me.

"I had no intentions of using it though. It was defence. I never said `I'll cut your jugular'. That was a grave error.'' Asked why he did not report Mr. Farley to the Police for "insulting and assaulting'' him, Cross said: "Because you never get results when you complain to the Police about tourists.'' Mr. Francis will pronounce judgment February 10 and Cross remains on bail.