A convicted rapist and robber was sent back to prison for eight years on Friday for viciously robbing a visitor and stabbing him in the face.

Supreme Court heard how Keeman Fitzgerald Grant had attempted to rob a female tourist of her bag as she sat talking to a cruise ship worker at Dockyard in the early hours of July last year.

However, prosecutor Graveney Bannister told the court how Grant had then turned on ship worker Benson Pillai when he tried to intervene - stealing a chain from around his neck and assaulting him with a sharp object, leaving him with a deep laceration to his temple.

As a result, Mr. Pillai, who then worked as a waiter on board the Nordic Empress, had to have several stitches to the wound and now has a scar on his brow and suffers headaches.

Mr. Bannister told how Mr. Pillai had gone to the Frog and Onion pub in Dockyard with cruise ship passenger Joanne Riley on the night in question, and afterwards they sat on a bench beneath the ClockTower talking.

At about 2.30 a.m., two men rode up on a bike and the pillion passenger approached and started talking to them.

"This man then walked around the back of Joanne Riley, grabbed her around the neck and held an object up to her throat," said Mr. Bannister.

"He then said `give me your money'. The complainant, Benson Pillai, stood up and the defendant repeated his demand for money, while maintaining a choke hold on Ms Riley."

The prosecutor said Grant threatened the woman and told her he had a blade, and then snatched her bag. Mr. Pillai chased after him, and the two men became involved in a scuffle.

The court heard how Grant threatened to stab the cruise ship worker and snatched a chain from around his neck, which had been a family heirloom. Mr. Pillai then felt blood on his face and realised he had been cut by a sharp object.

Grant was arrested later the same day and he admitted trying to rob the woman.

However, it was not until the day of the trial, after the prosecution had flown Mr. Pillai in from his native India to give evidence, that he pleaded guilty to robbing the cruise ship worker.

He was not charged with any offence in connection with Ms Riley. In his Police statement, Grant, 33, of Cambridge Road, Sandys, said: "I had asked his wife or girl for money and I had a little piece of metal. She was sitting down on the bench and I gripped her purse with one hand and she yanked it back and the strap broke.

"I told her I had a blade. Then after that the guy got up from off the bench and told me to go away and then he started to throw punches at me and kicks.

"Then, after I gripped him, trying to avoid him, his chain broke and I started to run with his chain because he had my red helmet, swinging at me."

The court heard unemployed Grant, a heroin addict, had numerous other convictions going back to his teens, including one for rape, one for robbery and a number involving violence.

Mr. Graveney asked the court to hand down a four-year prison term and said the sentence had to punish Grant, as well as act as a deterrent. He said Grant had not been very co-operative with Police.

However, defence lawyer Larry Mussenden claimed his client had co-operated with Police and said although Grant had claimed on the night that he had a blade, he actually did not.

He said although he had been in trouble many times before, he had never been treated for his heroin addiction, and said this time his client wanted to clean up his act. He also suggested a four-year sentence.

Mr. Mussenden said: "He is entirely remorseful. The only thing Mr. Grant wants now is to pay his price to society first and then, in addition, he would like the assistance of this court to re-enter the community in due course as a productive member of society."

Mr. Mussenden said his client was not a bad person, but had not had the pillars in life to make him productive.

He said he had left school early, had found it difficult to secure work, and had suffered drug addiction. But Assistance Justice Archibald Warner read a letter of remorse written by Grant and said, on the contrary, he had been impressed by his literary skill, grammar and level of expression.

In sentencing, Assistant Justice Warner said he had considered all arguments, but felt a substantial sentence was necessary. "This is a serious offence, committed by a man with an atrocious record, with previous convictions for violence, violence with a machete, and robbery, for which he served a two-year sentence," said Assistant Justice Warner.