CRAIG ROUGET was not assaulted by anybody other than James Dean before he stabbed him, according to the prosecution. In her closing statement, Crown Advocate Fiona Russell said Rouget himself had told the court how Mr Dean had walked off after the first part of the fight.

‘Had the fight stopped there, Mr Dean might have found himself in the Magistrate’s Court, as he had been before, charged with disorderly behaviour as his conduct was, by all accounts, pretty disgraceful,’ she said.

But it was what happened next that was key to the whole case, which was about an unarmed man who was invited back and fatally stabbed.

‘Four witnesses saw Rouget with a knife in his hand, three of whom could be described as his friends,’ said Advocate Russell.

Three people had told the court how Rouget had invited Mr Dean back after the first incident.

‘If you do have doubts he was holding a knife, consider why he might have been confident enough to call Mr Dean back, having just been overpowered by the larger man,’ said Advocate Russell.

She said an inadequate and immature young man had pulled a knife to even the contest against the larger man and that anyone who carried a knife must intend to use it.

‘Is the action of someone who is seen walking towards their opponent the action of someone who was afraid and fearing for their safety?’ she said.

Defence advocate Peter Ferbrache said that what had happened on 9 September last year was a tragedy and a 21-year-old man should not be dead today. Two decent families had had their lives torn apart by the affair.

Whatever happens, he said, his client’s life would be stained, marked and damaged forever.

‘You will not like the idea that Craig went out carrying a knife,’ he said.

‘But he is not on trial for that or for being an immature young man.’

Advocate Ferbrache said he disagreed with the Crown’s submission that the court had seen everything that happened on the night.

‘You have not,’ he said. ‘What you have seen is a jigsaw puzzle with some of the pieces missing and you cannot speculate.’

The court needed to take account of human frailties and the fact that people were not perfect.

‘The good sense and quality of the people who sit on the bench ‘jurats’ is beyond question, but none of you are 18 and none of you have been involved in brawl in the High Street on a Saturday evening.

‘You cannot put an old head on young shoulders.’

He reiterated that Mr Dean had been the aggressor and a member of the older, more-aggressive and troublesome group.

He said Mr Dean’s friends – John and Mark Rosamund and Glen Skillett – had tried to mislead the court, with each changing his attitude after seeing CCTV footage of the incident.

He said the court would consider evidence which suggested Rouget had boasted aloud after stabbing his victim.

‘He’s guilty, if you believe those remarks, of being nothing more than stupid and it does not mean he’s guilty of murder,’ said Advocate Ferbrache.

He said Mr Dean weighed 13st 12lb and Rouget just 11st 4lb, so in terms of weight difference it was no contest.

An experienced judge, some 60 years ago, had said provocation was something that made a person not the master of their own mind.

It was a difficult and sad case, the type of which Guernsey folk were thankfully not used to, said Advocate Ferbrache, and he asked the court to acquit his client of the murder charge.