A man accused of stabbing Jelani (Roots) Butterfield in December 2002 was the victim of repeated bullying, threats and intimidation, lawyer Victoria Pearman (pictured) argued in the Supreme Court yesterday.

Brandon (Cal) Barnes Brockett, 21, is charged with grievous bodily harm with the intent to wound Mr. Butterfield in the early hours of December 23 at Club Malabar in Dockyard.

Brockett claimed on Tuesday that Butterfield and his friend had violently targeted him over the weeks before the incident, including slashing his face with a knife at White Hill sports club in early December.

He also insisted that he went to the bathroom where the altercation took place that night simply because of a call of nature and had himself been attacked by Butterfield and was forced to defend himself with the knife he carried for protection.

However, Crown counsel Wayne Caines contended that Brockett went to the club with an eight-inch knife concealed in his back pocket with violence on his mind.

Mr. Caines has maintained throughout the elongated trial, which has taken close to three weeks already as two separate jurors were taken ill, that this was a ?cold and calculated? attack by a man intent on revenge after weeks of bad blood between the two men.

?The defendant left his home that evening armed with an eight-inch knife,? he said.

?He went to PHC, had a few drinks, and then took a taxi by himself to Club Malabar. All these actions signal the intent on his part.?

Mr. Caines also referred to the testimony of one club-goer, who said they saw Brockett follow Mr. Butterfield into the club?s toilets and emerge a few minutes later with blood speckled across his shirt.

Mr. Butterfield was also ?a witness of truth? he said, while urging the jury to disregard the fact that Butterfield is currently doing time on a drugs conviction.

?This has absolutely nothing to do with this case,? he said. Mr. Caines took issue further with Brockett?s claim he was attacked by Butterfield when he went into the bathroom and his violent actions took place only in self-defence.

?If this was true, why did he not alert the bouncers or the Police?? he questioned.

?Instead he exited the club and tossed the knife into the water before hitching a ride home. He didn?t go to the club that night to have a good time with friends as he claims.

He went there armed with an eight-inch knife and sat at the bar on his own and drank.? The suggestion that Brockett had only ?pricked? Butterfield in the shoulder with the knife was also pounced upon by Mr. Caines.

?That prick was a pretty serious prick,? he said.

?It was so serious that, as as the two surgeons (Dr. Joseph Froncioni and Dr Wesley Miller) testified that Mr. Butterfield lost two fifths of his blood supply in the operating theatre and, if left untreated, would have bled to death.?

However, defence counsel Victoria Pearman argued that only Brockett and Butterfield were witnesses to what actually took place in the bathroom, while questioning the veracity of Butterfield?s testimony.

?Jelani Butterfield and his friends are men who live and attempt to portray themselves as a gangsters and a thugs,? she said.

?They were bullies who had picked on my client in the past and Butterfield was armed with a flick-knife in the bathroom that night.

?Given the history between these two, where a person believes honestly, reasonably he is under attack, the law allows them to take the necessary steps to prevent themselves being injured.?

The nature of injuries, with a stab wound inflicted in Butterfield?s lower back and right shoulder, were not consistent with the nature of struggle described by Butterfield, Ms Pearman said, where it was claimed Brockett stood over him looking for a place to stab as Butterfield squirmed on the floor.

The location of the attack according to Butterfield ? beside the door of one of the toilet cubicles ? did not square with evidence either, Ms Pearman further argued, as the blood stains were found over by the urinals and on the sinks.

Brockett had earlier claimed he was attacked by Butterfield in the area of the urinals and had used the knife to defend himself there.

?There is no way in the world that the account given by Mr. Butterfield can make you feel sure my client is guilty of the charge,? she said.

?All it does is raise another million questions.

?In fact, the complainant was so busy trying to make himself look like an angel on that stand that he managed to tell a story which simply does not add up.

?If Mr. Butterfield was the victim here, Mr. Brockett was a victim too. He was harassed, beaten and threatened.?

A verdict is expected some time today.