A seven-man, five-woman jury is being asked to decide whether or not a schizophrenic charged with attempted murder was insane when he committed the crime.

In Supreme Court yesterday Lorenzo Prince Robinson, 24, of no fixed abode, denied attempting to murder American visitor Scott Jable, robbing a pocket knife from Knick Knack and stealing a gold ring from Dominik Wong on October 28, 2002.

In his opening and closing statements, Crown counsel Juan Wolffe said: ?This trial is unique... a lot of things are not in dispute.?

He said that Robinson was taken to Hamilton in a prison van after being released from Westgate prison that morning. Between 9.15 a.m. and 9.40 a.m. he went from Supreme Court to Fly Bridge Tackle where a salesman showed him a pocket knife he asked for. Robinson walked out of the shop and said, ?I?ll kill you if you call the Police?. He did a similar thing in a Queen Street jewellery store, stealing a gold Freemason ring.

Mr. Wolffe said that at 9.30 a.m. Mr. Jable was window-shopping along Front Street with his family when he ?felt a hard punch on his left side. He felt pain and saw blood. He called to his wife that he was stabbed and fell on his right side. A truck driver saw the defendant plunge the knife into Mr. Jable?s back and pull out the whole blade.

The truck driver chased Robinson onto Reid Street where a plain-clothes Policeman caught him.

Robinson told them: ?Leave me the f*** alone. I hope he?s f***ing dead. Bin Laden lives?.

Mr. Jable was taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital where the laceration caused haematoma and nerve root damage to the spine.

At 3.15 p.m. Robinson was identified at Police Headquarters. He did not dispute trying to kill Mr. Jable, or stealing the knife and ring.

London-based barrister John Goldberg QC said his client was ?undoubtedly criminally insane as four psychiatrists all say so... Dr. Frank Kelly diagnosed him with severe paranoid schizophrenia. He is possessed by voices.

?He believes voices control him?.

Under Sections 41 B and C of the criminal code, Robinson is not criminally responsible if he was incapable of controlling his action, or incapable to know he ought not to commit the crime.

Mr. Goldberg said that four psychiatrists have confirmed Robinson as mentally ill and may be acquitted by section 546 of the code. However, Robinson would not be free until the Governor grants him permission to leave.

Mr. Goldberg and Elizabeth Christopher gave a summary of the psychiatrists? evidence.

They said their client?s illness was incurable, and he probably spend the rest of his life in a high security asylum in England, such as Broadmoor. Robinson invented a black-magic religion called ?neterlam... and is on a secret holy war of his own and thinks that Bin Laden is one of his voices?.

The attorneys said Robinson believes the devil possesses his body. He said he stabbed Mr. Jable because he was laughing at him and had planned to kill the first white male tourist he saw and was on his way to kill Justice Carlisle Greaves when Police stopped him.

?He sacrifices pigeons, breaks their necks and smears their blood on his cell walls. He wears pigeon legs on his neck because it gives him back his powers and freedoms. He was doing that the week before he was released,? Mr. Goldberg said.

?He decorates his cell with black magic symbols. At night he believes an animal is defecating over his arm, making a terrible smell,? he said.

Robinson thinks that people are putting obeah, a form of Caribbean witchcraft, against him. He said he has ?astro-travelled?.

?He has no family to speak of but was abused by his mother and suffered major deprivation and abuse. He has had no full time employment. Along with paranoid schizophrenia, he suffers from depression, drug abuse, suicidal tendencies and psychopathic tendencies,? Mr. Goldberg said.

He has a delusional belief system stemming from his illness that has mutated his Christian upbringing into a twisted creation of his sick mind.

?Sadly at one time he lived with his granny and had excellent school reports from Berkeley. But his state deteriorated after abuse from his mother. He was put into foster care,? he said.

On June 9, 2000, he was jailed for one month after he walked into Hamilton Police Station with 1,280 firecrackers and 22 bullets. He told Police he was a secret agent employed by the Government and brought the ammo in from the US to ?prove that their security measures were not good?, he said.

Mr. Goldberg said Robinson wants to stab his doctors, because he thinks they are poisoning him with his medication. He does not eat the food in prison because he thinks his jailers are trying to poison him.

He has been described as a ?high risk inmate? by Mr. Goldberg who can be controlled when on the right medication? clozapine ?but is as ?nutty as a fruit cake? when not on the right medication, which he was not, on the weeks leading up to October 28.

The case resumes today before Puisne Judge Ian Kawaley.