Advocate Peter Ferbrache outside the court. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 0557940)
A TEENAGER who murdered James Dean offered an apology to his victim’s family yesterday.
Craig Rouget, through Advocate Peter Ferbrache, said he was sorry for the Dean family for what had happened. The message was conveyed a few minutes after the Guernsey Court of Appeal had rejected the 19-year-old’s appeal against his murder conviction.
Rouget stabbed to death the 21-year-old painter and decorator during an altercation in the High Street on a Saturday evening in September 2006. ‘It was an event that got out of all proportion,’ said Advocate Ferbrache. ‘Craig knows that it is something that the Dean family will have to live with for the rest of their lives and he will too.’
Advocate Ferbrache said his client had been very reflective during the time he had been representing him but he had been unable to make such comments before for legal reasons.
Mr Dean’s father Chris said his family did not wish to comment on the apology at this stage, but he reiterated his appeal for people not to carry knives.
Jersey Bailiff Sir Philip Bailhache, who presided, said the decision had been a unanimous one.
Delivering it, he spoke of the devastating effect that the case had had on two families and their friends.
‘It is a case that underlines the folly of carrying knives,’ he said.
‘We hope that young people in the island will learn a lesson from the tragic outcome of this incident which otherwise would have been no more than just a street fight.’
He rejected the appellant’s claim that Royal Court Judge Russell Finch had misdirected the jurats on issues of self-defence and provocation at the July trial.
He said Mr Finch’s summing up on both issues, and other matters, could not be faulted.
‘It follows, therefore, that the verdict of the Jurats must stand and the appeal is dismissed.’
Advocate Ferbrache said later that just because an appeal had been lost did not mean it was without merit.
He said his client hoped that all young people would take on board Sir Philip’s wise words about carrying knives.
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