Wounding with intent to injure

Press, 4 June 1988, Page 7

Wounding with intent to injure

A man who stabbed his flatmate in the heart with a vegetable knife after Guy Fawkes night drinking and arguing last November was found guilty by a jury in the High Court yesterday of wounding with intent to injure. This was the lesser of two alternative counts which the accused, Te Rangi Tuatahi Stirling, aged 26, a factory worker, faced. He had been alternatively charged with wounding his flatmate, Richard Kerry Bentley, aged 20, with intent to cause grievous : bodily harm; On the jury’s verdict, reached after a retirement of more than five hours, Mr Justice Williamson remanded Stirling on bail to June 17 for sentence; ' ■ Stirling had pleaded not guilty to both charges. He was represented by Mr R.

J. Murfitt. Mr B. M. Stanaway and Mrs A. M. Edwards appeared for the Crown. Evidence in the case was heard on Wednesday and Thursday. His Honour summed up yesterday morning, before the jury retired to consider its verdict. Evidence was that Stirling drove a vegetable knife into Mr Bentley’s chest after they had argued and fought. The knife penetrated the left ventricle of the heart but Mr Bentley ;) recovered after emergency treatment and surgery. The defence case was that the wound was inflicted without intent to cause injury, and in selfdefence, as Mr Bentley was the stronger of the two and had frequently beaten up the accused in arguments.