Charlie Smith
GIBRALTARIAN Jensen Duarte was charged with attempted murder, but has today been found guilty of the lesser crime of wounding with intent.
A resident of Edinburgh House, Duarte has been remanded in custody until November 30, pending a pre-sentencing report.
It comes after Duarte stabbed a 44-year-old fellow Gibraltarian in a violent brawl shortly after midnight on 22 November 2017 in the Waterport of the Rock.
During the trial at Gibraltar Supreme Court, Duarte said he ‘wasn’t too sure’ if he had stabbed his victim, despite the man being hospitalised with a punctured lung.
The court heard from medical experts that the 10cm deep chest wound could have been ‘life threatening’.
Judges Ricky Rhoda QC and Kerrin Drago, representing the Crown, came to their decision earlier today, after they had accused Duarte of lying about not stabbing the man.
Duarte claimed he felt pressure under police questioning and that when he is nervous he doesn’t ‘think straight’.
A police statement admitted that ‘the jury deliberated for ninety minutes before returning a guilty verdict’.
Puisne Judge Karen Ramagge-Prescott presided over the trial.
