A man was yesterday jailed for three years after a jury found him guilty of a lesser charge of seriously injuring his wife in a knife attack, which was however, excusable by the fact that he was in a state of mental agitation, by a 6-3 vote.

The bill of indictment drawn up against Paul Caruana, 34, from Zejtun, charged him with the attempted murder of his wife Sandra on 12 June 2003.

After almost three hours of deliberation, jurors found Paul Caruana, 34, from Zejtun, not guilty of the attempted murder of his wife, but unanimously found him guilty of being possession of an unlicensed knife.

However, they unanimously found him not guilty of the possession of a weapon with the aim of committing a crime.

Lawyers Emmanuel Mallia and Giannella Caruana Curran told the court, presided over by Mr Justice Joe Galea Debono that their client had a clean criminal record and no pending court cases.

They said that he always worked for his family and was now living with his wife who had forgiven him and that he never laid a hand on her until two days before the incident.

The lawyers also pointed out that Caruana had been willing to plead guilty to the charge of grievous bodily harm excusable by mental agitation and had even tried to plea bargain with the Attorney General.

The lawyers said the verdict reached was the minimum one allowed by law and pointed out the irony of how his charge was qualified by the fact that it was his wife who got him to the mental state he was in.

The lawyers called on the judge to show clemency with their client and hand down a suspended jail term.

On the other hand, Senior Counsel to the Republic Mark Said said although there had been attempts at plea bargaining, punishment had not been discussed.

“It was true that Mr Caruana was caught up in an uncomfortable and pathetic situation but, in light of what happened, he had committed a big mistake,” he said.

Dr Said added that when a person assaulted someone with a weapon, he deserved an effective jail term.

According to the calculations of the prosecution he was facing between five months and three years and four months imprisonment.

After taking note of the circumstances the judge referred to case-law which stated that, as a general rule, violent acts such as the one committed by Caruana were to be punished with an effective jail term especially if weapons were used. The judge also quoted a judgement in which it was stated that even when a person was found guilty of committing a crime when in a state of mental agitation, “there is still in every human being a residual capacity for self-control, which the exigencies of a given situation may call for”.

The judge jailed Mr Caruana for three years and ordered that the time he spent in preventive custody be deducted from his jail term.