'I lashed out with knife as I was attacked'

ACCUSED Craig Rouget took to the witness stand on day five of his trial for the murder of James Dean. He was the first witness for the defence.

Rouget admitted carrying a knife for his own protection when he went out but said he had not planned to use it.

He said his brother, Darren, had, about three months previously, given him the knife that killed James Dean. He started taking it out with him after a friend had been attacked.

He had not planned to use the knife unless he got into a situation where he felt threatened, then he might have needed it to scare someone off.

'Had you ever been attacked?' asked Crown Advocate Fiona Russell.

'No,' he replied.

She said he always had his mobile phone.

'People won't stop attacking you just because you pull a mobile phone out,' he said.

Flanked by two prison officers in the dock, the defendant spent more than two hours giving evidence.

He told how he had gone into Town on the September evening in question for a friend's birthday party at The Boathouse on the Crown Pier.

He had drunk two WKD alcopops before getting into Town and two pints of lager while he was there. He had not taken any drugs.

The mood of the group was happy and cheerful as they climbed the Pier Steps on their way to Dix-Neuf.

Rouget said he had spoken to friends near Boots before he and some girls started to walk down the High Street towards the Commercial Arcade.

He noticed a group of about eight men, aged 20 to 30, on his right.

One of them, who he now knew to be James Dean, shouted, 'Get your tits out', to one of the girls.

'I said, ?Shut up, you fat prick?,' said Rouget.

He said Mr Dean then walked at him at a fast pace and headbutted him.

The two men tussled and he was trying to get away.

'I managed to get away and then I said, ?What's the point of that?'.'

He said Mr Dean then came at him again and started punching him.

'I didn't want to get into a fight,' said Rouget.

The first he could remember of the knife was when he noticed it, half open on the ground, while he was lying on his back with Mr Dean on top attacking him.

'I feared for my life. I was being punched and someone kicked me in the head so I grabbed the open knife and began lashing out with it to stop the attack.'

Mr Rouget recalled that four people were attacking him.

He had not meant to kill or seriously injure Mr Dean. When he managed to get up he heard someone say: ?He's been stabbed? so Mr Rouget began to run down High Street. He did not recall stopping at the bottom of Berthelot Street.

He remembered a man dressed in black chasing him and they turned left by Woolworth's, crossing the road to the Albert Pier.

'I looked around and saw two other people had joined in the chase,' said Mr Rouget. He said he threw the knife away because he feared the men would use it to stab him.

'At least two of them punched me. I was trying to calm the situation down with words and bystanders were asking them to stop.'

Mr Rouget eventually got away. He ended up by The Yacht Hotel with two friends, Callum Queripel and a juvenile.

There he phoned another friend, Lloyd Wallbridge, to ask for help, then the police.

He said the men were still chasing him so he and his friends hid in the bushes in front of Credit Suisse Bank.

He asked his friends to swap clothes as he did not want to meet the police in bloodstained garments. Mr Queripel swapped trousers while the boy, who cannot be named, gave him his shirt. He saw a police car circle the roundabout and go back towards Town.

Mr Queripel suggested he call Kieran Saunders to get a lift out of Town.

Mr Rouget was picked up by the Half Moon cafe and taken to Vazon where he went to the toilet. From there he was driven back to North Beach where he met Mr Queripel and another juvenile, he said.

Mr Queripel put Mr Rouget's ripped top in the juvenile's rucksack and the three of them started to walk along Glategny Esplanade. At the Longstore they tried to attend a friend's party but she said her mother was ill and didn't let them in.

They went on to Beeton's Fish and Chip Shop before turning into the Bouet and making their way to Mr Rouget's Braye Road home where he changed his clothes and gave Mr Queripel back his trousers. Mr Rouget said he put on a hooded top.

His brother, Darren, called at that stage and said he had heard what had happened. Darren suggested they go to his home at Le Picquerel Estate and he met them on his bicycle by Marks & Spencer's at Route Carre.

When they were by the church someone called Darren on his mobile phone to say Mr Dean was dead.

'I didn't believe it,' said Mr Rouget. 'I thought it was a rumour that had escalated.'

The quartet were walking up Sandy Lane when Mr Rouget said his brother suggested they burn the bloodstained clothes at a bunker near the estate.

They took a can of deodorant from the juvenile's bag and Mr Rouget used it as an accelerant while his brother lit the flame. Mr Rouget went outside to get some grass to make it burn more quickly.

'I just wanted to deny all knowledge of being involved,' he said.

The group walked across the grass area where Tracey Churchill was standing outside a house.

'I got upset about what had happened and she asked me in,' said Mr Rouget.

Mrs Churchill dialled the police number and Mr Rouget spoke on the phone. Police arrived about 45 minutes later and he was arrested.

Advocate Russell asked who else would have known that Mr Rouget carried a knife. He said perhaps Mr Queripel, who was his best friend.

She took Mr Rouget back to events in the High Street and asked why he had not just ignored the lewd comments.

'I didn't think it should have been shouted out,' he said. 'I was angry.

'We had all been in high spirits and it spoiled the evening.'

Advocate Russell said the comments had been vulgar and pretty idiotic, but not something to get angry about.

'I didn't get that angry,' he said.

He conceded that the girls had not been in danger.

Advocate Russell said the first fight could have been the end of it.

'I was shocked,' said Mr Rouget. 'My face was hurting and I'd just been headbutted.'

She said he had just been headbutted in front of friends and the embarrassment had driven him to start the fight again, this time with a knife.

Mr Rouget denied that and also that he had shouted out 'Now that's what you call a stabbing' after the knifing.

Advocate Russell asked why numerous witnesses, including two of his friends, had said the remark, or similar, had been made by him.

'Why would they have done it?' she said.

'I'm not calling anyone a liar. I just can't remember it,' he replied.

Advocate Russell asked if that meant he might have said it.

'I suppose that's fair to say,' he said.

She asked how he could have seen his own knife lying next to him in the High Street when he was lying on his back.

'I can only say what I remember,' he said.

Advocate Russell said that by the time Mr Rouget was on the ground Mr Dean had already been fatally injured.

'I accept that,' he said.

She said he must have taken the knife from his pocket earlier and locked it into position.

'I suppose I must have,' he replied.

By the time that Mark Rosamund had kicked Mr Rouget in the head and Mr Dean had already been fatally injured, said Advocate Russell.

Mr Rouget agreed.

'Did you want to get your own back on Mr Dean for headbutting you in front of your friends?' said Advocate Russell.

Mr Rouget said he just remembered being angry.

In his statement to police, Mr Rouget had said he was being attacked, but he had managed to retaliate.

'The retaliation was when you drew the knife and went towards Mr Dean,' said Advocate Russell.

'The general drift of it was that you were calling Mr Dean back weren't you?' she said.

Mr Rouget said he didn't remember.

'You have a very selective memory, don't you?' she said.

Mr Rouget said he was not going to make things up and Advocate Russell said she did not expect him to.

'It was not surprising that people said you looked frightened on the Albert Pier because you had just stabbed a man and his friends were after you,' she said.

The open knife that he threw could well have hurt someone else.

'I just wanted to get rid of it,' he replied.

Advocate Russell said the only reason that Mr Queripel and the boy had been persuaded to swap clothes was because Mr Rouget had indicated he was going to hand himself in to police.

'Yet when a police car went past you did not try to stop it,' she said.

Mr Rouget said he was scared because the three men were after him.

Advocate Russell said Wayne Bishop and the boy had said that the three men did not appear again until after Mr Rouget had left the South Plantation.

'Why did you call Lloyd Wallbridge before calling the police,' she said.

'I just wasn't thinking straight,' he said.

She asked why he had not asked his friends to drive him straight to the police station where he knew he would have been safe.

'That would have been the better option,' he said.

Advocate Russell said clothes had been burned, clothes swapped and a knife thrown away.

'You were systematically trying to destroy the evidence as you knew you had gone over the top by stabbing an unarmed man,' she said.

Mr Rouget said the man had been on top of him.

'You felt confident because you had a knife,' she said.

Mr Rouget said that would not have made a difference because about eight of Mr Dean's friends had been around and they would have got him if they wanted.

Mr Rouget buried his face in the palms of his hands after completing his testimony.