The defence of the Wellington Oval defendants is the stuff of fiction, Crown Counsel Shade Subair said on Friday in her summations at Magistrates' Court.

“It would be so easy for me to go on and on about how unlikely their story is,” said Miss Subair as she went over the “unbelievable” testimony of Wolde Trott, 21, of Paget, and Kavon Earlstone Smith, 25, of Southampton.

Both defendants claim they found their weapons - a sword and a machete - on the Wellington Oval field during the fight that broke out at the Friendship Trophy final on April 4 this year. Both men said they picked up the weapons to defend their friend Kiwon Butterfield who was lying unconscious on the field, having suffered a blow to the head from John Everett Trott.

Trott and Smith both face charges of possession of an offensive weapon and going armed to a public place in a manner to cause terror at Wellington Oval.

But Miss Subair called Smith's contradictory account of how he found his sword “not believable”.

Smith said originally that he found the sword while he was still standing on top of the wall overlooking the field. But under cross examination he said that he found it lying in its scabbard when he had jumped onto the field.

“Kavon Smith got on the stand and said that by having the sword he hoped to scare people away,” Miss Subair said as she addressed Smith's charge of going armed in a manner to cause terror. “He said later that he felt he achieved that purpose.”

In examining the elements of the charges she told the court that going armed can be legally defined as possessing an object available and capable of causing terror.

“It's how the object is used that determines the manner,” she said, adding: “They certainly didn't go out on the field to cut grass.”

She also pointed out how Smith failed to point out other weapons lying on the field when presented with pictures of the melee. This comes despite both defendants claiming that there were several weapons, besides their own, lying loose on the field.

“Wolde Trott has given an equally unbelievable story on the stand,” she said citing the testimony he gave earlier that day, where he claimed he competed with another man for the machete on the ground.

“He said ‘I jumped a 12 to 14 foot wall. I had no weapon on me. There were ten to 12 other guys out on the field and I didn't know if they were all attacking Butterfield'.

“And then, my Worship, it gets even better,” she continued. “He said he happened to fall in the same spot where Kavon Smith said he picked up his sword. Is it at all likely that he jumped down with another man and, just like in the movies, grabbed the machete just before the other man and ran off to save Kiwon Butterfield who's lying out cold on the ground?”

She said that the balance of proof had been successfully transferred to the defence. The Crown proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Smith and Trott were armed in that fight, she said. It was up to the defence to prove that the pair had a reasonable excuse for carrying the weapons.

In his summation, Leo Mills, representing both men, said the pair had picked up the weapons in order to protect themselves and more specifically to save the unconscious Butterfield from further attack from John Trott.

Magistrate Will Francis asked Mr. Mills: “If both of your men are to believed, then there wasn't just a machete lying on the ground, but a sword too. This means that at least two people had to drop their weapons on the ground.”

It was also proved during the testimony of Wolde Trott that there had been no conspiracy that day to initiate any violence, said Mr. Mills.

Trott testified that he had he had not even planned to the game that day, only deciding at the last minute and getting a ride with his mother.

In addition, Mr. Mills said that in photographs taken that day it was as “clear as crystal” that Wolde Trott was under threat of attack by John Trott who was wielding a six-foot board.

But Miss Subair said: “If it was that clear that Wolde Trott was being attacked, then the court would have acknowledged it already and we wouldn't be sitting here right now trying him.”

Mr. Francis is expected to hand down his judgement on August 16.