The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is to appeal the 12-month sentence handed down to knife attacker Justis Raham Smith.

The 25 year old, of Sunset Mews, Pembroke, walked out of Supreme Court on Monday following his sentence hearing after Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons said he had served ample time while on remand and should now be free to go.

He had previously been found guilty of unlawfully wounding Shanae Outerbridge in February of last year during a fight at Dockyard.

The court heard how he had used a penknife to stab the young woman in the stomach after the fight broke out because he had sneaked into their cab.

Smith was also convicted of causing bodily harm to Hanifah Taalibdin and of being in possession of an offensive weapon after the incident.

He spent 11 months on remand after being arrested soon after the incident, but was then bailed last December. However, he then spent a further six weeks in prison after being found guilty this summer.

The maximum sentence for the attack was five years, and prosecutor Lloyd Rayney said previous convictions for violent behaviour spoke a lot about his character.

But Smith's lawyer, Elizabeth Christopher, argued that similar cases heard in Magistrates' Court carried just a one-year sentence, and she said her client was now trying to get an education.

Mrs. Justice Simmons told the hearing on Monday how she had to encourage lawful behaviour and said that young people had to be more responsible when they socialised and drank.

And she then told Smith that he had served sufficient time and he was free to go - without having had the benefit of a lengthy rehabilitation programme.

But yesterday, DPP Kulandra Ratneser said he had read the file and was unhappy with the sentencing.

"I'm going to appeal the decision," he said.

"The grounds on which we appeal are that the sentence is manifestly inadequate. That is the decision that I have come to after speaking with the prosecutor and reading the file and the judge's comments."

Mr. Ratneser said he had 21 days in which to appeal, and would do so soon, but he said he was unsure as to when the appeal would be heard.

It could be during the first few months of next year.

During the sentencing on Monday, Mr. Rayney told the court that during an interview for his social inquiry report earlier this month, Smith had said that he believed he was convicted of the stabbing because of his association with the high profile murder of Canadian tourist Rebecca Middleton in 1996.

The 17-year-old had been tortured, raped and repeatedly stabbed before being left to die at Ferry Reach while on holiday on the Island.

Smith was accused of her murder, but then acquitted after the late Puisne Judge Vincent Meerabux deemed there to be insufficient evidence against him. The Privy Council later said that it was astounded by the judge's decision, but ruled that it was unable to overturn his decision.

Kirk Mundy received five years for admitting to being an accessory after the fact.

However, prosecutors accepted that plea before receiving all the forensic and DNA evidence.

Forensic experts were later to claim that Rebecca had probably been killed by two people - one person to hold her down while the other person inflicted the injuries.

The lack of a conviction for her murder led to a public outcry across the Island and later led to a six-week commission of inquiry into the handling and prosecution of serious crime on the Island during 2000.

But Mr. Rayney said on Monday that Smith's recent conviction for the stabbing of Ms Outerbridge had nothing to do with his association with the Middleton case.

And yesterday, Mr. Ratneser reiterated that his decision to appeal was also based solely on the latest case.

He said: "This is based on the submissions that the Crown made yesterday (Monday). There are a number of factors that have to be taken into account in the decision that I made, and, having considered what the judge said and what the Crown's position was, the sentence imposed, in my view, was manifestly inadequate.

"The issue is not so much Justis Smith himself, but in circumstances such as this, this type of sentence is inadequate. We believe there should have been a period of incarceration (after sentencing)."

The Royal Gazette spoke to Commissioner of Corrections John Prescod yesterday to find out what the differences were in the treatment of people on remand, as opposed to those who have been convicted, at Westgate prison.

But he said, despite what some people believed, those people on remand often received fewer privileges than those convicted, often even being held as maximum security prisoners and undergoing long periods of lock down.

He said they did not receive the same opportunities to take part in programmes or work release, although some attempt was made to categorise remand inmates into those with violent tendencies and those without.

However, those on remand are also not given the opportunity to undergo rehabilitation programmes, such as anger or violence management.