A jury is expected to deliver its verdict today on a man charged with grievous bodily harm on an off-duty prison officer.

Crown counsel Anthony Blackman said yesterday the case against 30-year-old Shannon O'Brien Tuzo was a simple one and that he had joined others in the attack on Craig Randall Clarke, a 33-year-old Westgate corrections officer from Devonshire.

Mr. Clarke lost 70 percent of the vision in one eye and needed stitches and surgery on his nose after the attack outside Club 40 on Front Street in the early hours of January 1, 2002.

Shaki Eugene Crockwell, 21, of Happy Valley Road, Pembroke, has already admitted causing grievous bodily harm to Clarke and will be sentenced at a later date for the offence which carries a maximum five-year jail term.

Yesterday Assistant Justice Archibald Warner ordered the acquittal of a third man - Raymond Winslow Burgess, 25 - who along with Tuzo had pleaded not guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Clarke. That offence carries a maximum of ten years in jail.

Mr. Warner said there was insufficient evidence to proceed against Burgess and that a video tape evidence shown in court could not properly identify him.

But the case against Tuzo continued with Mr. Blackman saying he had delivered two blows in a joint attack with "his boys" shortly after Clarke, who had been out celebrating New Year's Eve at the Club 40 night club, offered condolences to Troy Rawlings over the recent death of his brother Steven (Pepe) Dill.

Dill had died in prison in December from a severe asthma attack - an inquest recently heard that Dill had died due to a lack of timely medical attention.

An argument ensued and two men began to beat up Clarke, said Mr. Blackman. Tuzo got involved and overtook others to get to Clarke and land two blows which floored him, said the prosecutor.

He said there was evidence of GBH and evidence the men had worked together to attack Mr. Clarke.

Tuzo declined to take the witness stand but his lawyer Victoria Pearman said he had told Police he had smacked the victim once, but added the Crown could not prove he had caused GBH.

She said: "Crockwell pleaded to something less even though he admitting toeing him in the head."

Her client had confessed even before he knew about CCTV evidence, said Ms Pearman.

"You wrongfully hit that person but where is the evidence you are part of a plan?"

But her client had not admitted striking twice and she said camera evidence showed Mr Clarke was still moving after Tuzo's assault. The victim had said he was taken to hospital unconscious.

"If it was a punch it was the strangest punch I have seen with a hand flailing in the air."

The trial continues today.