“I should have finished you years ago”

Thursday 12 March 2020

A 34-year-old man who's accused of a stabbing has told the Royal Court he was acting in self-defence, after the alleged victim told him, "I should have finished you years ago.”

James Christopher Power is facing one count of grave and criminal assault, which he denies.

The case opened in Jersey's Royal Court on Tuesday, with the jury hearing live evidence from the alleged victim, a man in his 50s, who claimed he didn't recall how he sustained stab wounds in August last year, and that he didn't want to send anyone to prison.

Yesterday, Mr Power took to the stand, saying he hadn’t stabbed the man or caused him injuries intentionally. He told the jury he had acted in self-defence after the man, who he met just out of prison, attacked him in a property on Beach Road.

Pictured: The alleged attack is said to have taken place at a property on Beach Road.

Mr Power said this had happened after the pair had discussed an incident from years ago during which the other man had punched him and accused him of stealing his phone.  

He said that at some point during the evening of 16 August, the man “switched on him”.

“I could tell he was getting mad the way he spoke to me,” Mr Power said. “I think he flipped… He changed from being quite alright to being quite narky." 

Mr Power said the man had put the bottom of the knife against his throat and then the blade. After he pushed him away, he claimed the man said: “I should have finished you years ago.” 

Mr Power said the man climbed over him, so he grabbed his hands, before pushing him away and getting the knife off him. “It happened very quickly,” Mr Power said.

After getting off the couch, Mr Power tried to make his way out of the flat, at which point he stood on the man’s medication bag. “I thought I’m having this… I had spent 30 quid on beers for him. I just took it.” 

Pictured: Mr Power disposed of the medication bag and knife in Howard Davis Park.

Mr Power said he then walked backwards to the door, still holding the knife as he didn’t want the man to pick it up and “stab him in the back." 

He said that when he left there was no blood in the flat and he didn’t know the other man had any injuries. 

He walked to Howard Davis Park, where he took the drugs out the pack and put the empty bag and blister packs in a bin. “It’s quite a nice park…It’s a nice kept park and there’s a bin around the corner,” he explained.

He then buried the knife in the park so that no one would pick it up.

Mr Power denied wearing a balaclava in the man’s flat, either on 16 August 2019 or on any other occasion.

The jury also heard that during an interview with the police, Mr Power had suggested the alleged victim had stabbed himself then blamed it on “a man in a balaclava” to get new furniture, medication as well as compensation. 

Pictured: Crown Advocate Julian Gollop is leading the prosecution.

In his closing speech, Crown Advocate Gollop described the incident as “an unprovoked assault”, saying Mr Power had committed it as he wanted the man’s prescribed medication for his own use. 

“There can be no doubt about his motivation as he admitted taking the bag,” he told the jury. 

He told the jury the alleged victim had become ‘hostile’ while taking the stand, by providing evidence that was not supported and inconsistent with the statements he had given to the police. He asked the jury to disregard the oral evidence he had given and urged them to rely on the statements instead. 

Referring to Mr Power’s version of events, he said: “When somebody is lying, it is the details that trap them… and expose them as a liar.”

He concluded his speech, saying: “the only plausible and believable account is that [the alleged victim] was attacked with his knife by Mr Power in his flat.”

Pictured: Advocate Francesca Pinel is representing Mr Power.

The defence lawyer, Advocate Francesca Pinel said Mr Power had acted in self-defence and did what he thought was necessary and reasonable for that in her own closing speech." 

“The evidence is nowhere strong enough to convince you Mr Power wasn’t acting in his defence,” she said. 

She described the alleged victim’s account as being “confused, riddled with lies and not reliable".  

She told the jury they couldn’t be sure the man, whom she said had lied to the jury and the police, was “not capable of the violence Mr Power said he had to defend himself from”, pointing out to the man’s “continuous history of vicious unprovoked violence".

She said Mr Power’s case was straightforward. “He did take the medication. He pleaded guilty because he pleads guilty to the things he’s done. He didn’t stab [the alleged victim.]"

She told the jury the alleged victim was “not a man to be trusted and not a credible witness”, suggesting he had been playing a game with the police and getting what he wanted from it. 

Concluding her speech, she told the jury it was impossible to be sure what happened and added Mr Power “simply said he didn’t cause injuries and if he did it was unintentional." 

The jury of seven women and five men is expected to retire to make their decision today following directions from the Bailiff, Tim Le Cocq.