A Crown counsel blamed his lunch for his heated cross-examination of a robbery suspect in Supreme Court yesterday.

And despite the barrage of questions thrown at him, John Glasgow, 22, of Spring Hill, Warwick, still denied robbing Mr. Allen Robinson of $600 on Tribe Road Number Three on December 12, 2003.

Mr. Robinson?s jaw was broken so badly during the robbery that his jaw was wired up for five weeks, forcing him to eat through a straw.

While questioning Glasgow, Crown counsel Wayne Caines was told to slow down and keep his voice down by Acting Justice Carlisle Greaves.

?I know you are getting excited now but the microphones are working pretty fine,? Mr. Justice Greaves said.

Mr. Caines apologised and said his fiery questions were caused by the curry he had for lunch.

?I know next time to avoid curry,? he said.

Glasgow told the eight-woman, three-man jury that he spent the morning of December 12 at his Spring Hill Road home.

?I woke up at 11 a.m. and was out of bed at 11.30 a.m. I had to go to my grandmother?s house at Keith Hall Road, ten minutes away,? Glasgow said.

When he got to his grandmother?s house, he said: ?The front door was open. I picked up the paint and painted my granny?s rafter feet.?

Glasgow said he painted for a few hours, went home for a lunch-hour, then returned to paint until approximately 6.30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

But his grandmother was not able to verify that he had been at her house that day, he said because he ?didn?t see his granny at all?.

Mr. Caines asked Glasgow if he was painting in the dark at 6.30 p.m.

?Were you painting by candlelight?? Mr. Caines asked. ?Did you have a spotlight over there helping you to paint? I say to you that it was dark on December 12 that year.?

But Glasgow said he was ?a young man, with good eyes, so it was not like he couldn?t see?.

And Glasgow said he did not paint any more of the house between December 13 and December 17.

He also agreed that it was ?very lucky for Police? that he ?happened to be? at the Tribe Road Number Three area when he was arrested.

It was also very coincidental, Glasgow agreed, that Mr. Robinson picked him out at an identity parade, where he was identified by Mr. Robinson as his attacker.

However, Glasgow said he ?was not in ...Tribe Road Number Three area when the incident occurred?.

His lawyer, Craig Attridge, asked him if he was ever told by Police that he did not have to go into the identity parade, and he said that he hadn?t.

But at the identity parade on December 18, Glasgow said he agreed to go ahead ?without a lawyer or a friend present? and agreed that ?the parade had been done fairly?.

?(Mr. Robinson) could be terribly mistaken,? Glasgow said. ?It wasn?t me.?

The trial is expected to conclude today.