A man was given a sentence of two years imprisonment, but suspended for two years, because of his guilty plea and other factors in wounding Jeff Naldy Welcome.

In the Cayman Islands Grand Court, on 18^th October 2012, Justice Charles Quin, made his ruling after hearing the case of Defendant Rudy Kendal’s unlawful wounding of his cousin Naldy on 5^th of February, 2011, at John Mclean Drive, East End.

Even before the offence took place the two men had acrimonious issues  between  themselves.  On the day of the incident there was more verbal abuse when Kendal was riding his bicycle towards his house after passing Welcome’s yard. Welcome followed Kendal on foot.

There were differing versions of what happened next but the result was a fight broke out between the men with hitting and slapping plus Welcome throwing Kendal’s bicycle at him. Kendal ran away and Welcome ran after him. It was after this that Kendal took a knife out from his pocket that he used for arts and crafts.

When Welcome caught up with Kendal, Kendal at first tried to evade Welcome but after a while decided to face him. Welcome tried to strike him and it was then Kendal cut him with the knife.

Welcome was transported to hospital and to have 17 stitches to the knife wound of 6cm received to his wrist.

Both the Crown and the Defence accepted there was a significant degree of provocation and, in some respects, the Defendant acted in self defence.

The Court viewed the Serious Incident Report (SIR) as well as the Psychiatric report and understood the extent the Defendant had suffered a “history of attacks to his person” and automatically felt the need to fight back because his “reluctance to fight back” in the past had “persons viewing him as simple minded.”

The Court accepted that the Defendant honestly believed he had to defend himself, the knife he used was one he used daily in relation to his craft work, but he had over reacted and the knife use was unreasonable and disproportionate. He also could have run into the house and locked the door. He was also on a bicycle and rode away as Welcome was on foot.

In the mitigating factors the Court took the following into account:

“It is clear from the SIR that, regrettably, the Defendant’s problems  in life  began  at a very  early  age,  as  he was  raised  by an alcoholic father who abused the Defendant’s mother and the other children.

“Moreover, the Defendant, for reasons he is unable to articulate, considers  himself as “the black sheep” of the family and “looked down upon” by other family members; so much so that he states that he is rejected  by his family and has very little contact with family members- with the exception of his mother.

“Moreover, in the Defendant’s late teens and early 20’s – a time when most young adults are starting to find gainful employment, he began the downward  slide of ganja and cocaine consumption. Consequently, instead of being able to build his self esteem and counter the ill-effects of rejection and abuse of his early childhood with gainful employment and productive activity, the Defendant relied  on  illicit drugs because they “covered the pain he was feeling”.”

A Psychiatric report showed that not only had Kendal been frequently bullied, both verbally and physically, he had in June 2007 been diagnosed with suffering from paranoia, schizophrenia and drug misuse.

Judge Quinn in giving his suspended sentence made it clear that should the Defendant commit any further offences within the next two years he will be remanded to custody to serve the two-year sentence he had imposed.

Kendal was also ordered to pay Welcome’s the sum of CI$242.41 in compensation by 18^th February 2013. His knife was ordered to be returned to him for his use in making art and craft.