A man who claimed he was acting in self-defence when stabbing Jelani (Roots) Butterfield in December 2002 was found not guilty of grievous bodily harm with intent to wound in Supreme Court yesterday.

Brendan (Cal) Barnes Brockett, 21, of Farm Lane in Warwick, said he had been subjected to a vendetta of violence, threats and intimidation by Butterfield and his ?thuggish? posse of friends over the preceding weeks and was merely protecting himself against an attack in the bathrooms of Dockyard?s Club Malabar on December 22.

Mr. Brockett conceded he had taken an eight-inch kitchen knife with him to the club that evening, but vehemently denied the accusation of Crown counsel Wayne Caines that his actions constituted a ?cold and calculated? revenge attack.

Attempts to extract comment from the vindicated Mr. Brockett were unsuccessful yesterday as he swiftly exited the Supreme Court building soon after the verdict and was whisked away in his family?s car.

The Crown had maintained throughout the trial that Mr. Brockett entered the bathrooms that night and attacked Butterfield from behind, stabbing him once in the lower back and once in the right shoulder, before calmly exiting the club and throwing the knife in the ocean.

Butterfield was rushed to hospital soon after where it took two surgeons to save his life ? losing two fifths of his total blood supply in the operating theatre. Mr. Brockett, however, said Butterfield attacked him, and in the course of their violent struggle he was forced to use the knife concealed in his back pocket.

He also spoke of a number of incidents prior to their final altercation where Butterfield and his friends, who allegedly were notorious for their bullying antics, had threatened his safety ? including slashing his face with a knife at White Hill sports club in early December of that year.

?Given the history of bad blood between the two, when Mr. Brockett was attacked in that bathroom he had every reason to assume his safety was being threatened,? defence counsel Victoria Pearman said on Thursday in her closing statement.

?My client does not deny he took a knife with him to the club that night, but in the circumstances, where he was frightened and continually threatened, he had every right to protect himself.?