left his victim, who was asleep before the attack, with injuries so bad he had to have a finger amputated.

Defence lawyer Marc Telemaque yesterday told the Supreme Court that case law indicated a term of three to five years would be suitable and he pointed out that Randy Benjamin had only received four years for burying a knife into the temple of a man in a Paget gang fight in 1993.

But Assistant Judge Phillip Storr pointed to Garfield Anthony Carmichael's long record which included a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence for rape and actual bodily harm in 1991.

Other convictions included grievous bodily harm, common assault, violently resisting arrest, possessing an offensive weapon and forgery.

Carmichael, 37, still had a two-year suspended prison sentence hanging over him for unlawfully entering a house in April 1998.

When asked what he had to say Carmichael, a Jamaican, said: "I still maintain my innocence. Jesus Christ was accused of a crime he didn't commit or to put it this way he was accused. So I will hold my peace.'' But Mr. Storr said: "I hear what you say, but the jury found you guilty of a very serious offence and the evidence I have heard tells me from doctors that this was a very heavy blow, struck probably with a machete or similar.

"You have an appalling record including violence. This doesn't appear to have been provoked. I am sentencing you to five years in prison.

"You have a suspended sentence which has been activated. I will order you to be sentenced to six months in prison for this. This will run concurrently with the other sentence.'' At yesterday's sentencing session Mr. Telemaque said the father of one, from Redkiln Road, Hamilton Parish, had been attempting to turn his life around.

Mr. Telemaque said: "These previous convictions could be viewed as serious but the most serious was in 1991.'' On Tuesday a Supreme Court jury returned a majority verdict on Carmichael, finding him guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm on Clinton Harold (Flip) Webb on September 9, last year.