A jury found a Hamilton Parish man guilty of an attack which left his victim with injuries so bad he had to have a finger amputated.

After two and a half hours the Supreme Court panel returned a majority verdict on Garfield Anthony Carmichael, finding him guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm on Clinton Harold (Flip) Webb.

Carmichael, 37, of Redkiln Road, will be sentenced today at 10 a.m. He was remanded in custody after the verdict.

The trial, which lasted a day and a half, heard how Mr. Webb had been injured in an attack on September 9, last year.

He was hit across the head and hands with a weapon, suggested by doctors to be a machete, resulting in a cut forehead and lacerations on his hands. The injuries to his left hand were so bad that doctors had to amputate his little finger.

The court heard how a group of people had gone to a barn to relax after a day gardening in the Cottage Hill area.

After a while three people left, leaving the victim and Carmichael in the shack, which was home to two brothers.

Mr. Webb said he awoke after being hit on the head with a weapon, which he believed was a machete, and saw Carmichael standing over him about to strike again.

The victim put up his hands to defend himself from the second blow, resulting in the cuts.

He then claimed Carmichael just walked off.

Mr. Webb walked to a friend's house to alert the emergency services.

There were suggestions that the victim was selling drugs and the attack was due to money he owed to a supplier.

But Crown counsel Larry Mussendon said the complainant had admitted he had sold drugs in the past, but denied he was selling them on that day.

"Bad things happen to good people, but bad things also happen to bad people,'' he said.

But Marc Telemaque, defending, said none of the witnesses saw the incident and suggested that Mr. Webb only blamed Carmichael because he was the only one left with him in the barn.