Justis Smith faces a maximum five-year sentence after an 11-1 jury verdict found him guilty of stabbing Shanae Outerbridge in Dockyard last February.

A majority verdict found him not guilty on the original charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm which carries a ten-year maximum.

But the jury found him guilty of the lesser charge of unlawfully wounding, just five minutes after requesting advice from the judge.

The jury had been sent out two and a half hours earlier.

Smith, 25, had become notorious after being charged with the gruesome 1996 killing of 17-year-old Canadian tourist Rebecca Middleton at Ferry Reach.

She had been tortured and raped before being stabbed and left to die of multiple stab wounds to the neck, chest and abdomen.

But at the 1998 trial Puisne Judge Vincent Meerabux ordered the case against Smith be dropped for lack of evidence.

The court of appeal ordered a re-trial after saying Smith could have been at the murder scene and been the principal killer.

But Britain's Privy Council, the highest court of appeal for Bermuda, said the Crown could only appeal on matters of law.

Kirk Mundy, was jailed for five years for being an accessory after the fact but Ms Middleton's family from Belleville, Ontario believe there has been a miscarriage of justice.

The botched handling of the case sparked a 2000 inquiry into Bermuda's justice system while outraged Canadians urged a boycott of the island.

Yesterday Smith was remanded in custody by Puisne judge Charles-Etta Simmons while a social inquiry report is carried out ahead of his sentencing at the October 1 arraignment session for the Dockyard stabbing.

Asked for his comments about the verdict Prosecutor Lloyd Rayney said: "Everything the Crown needs to say in respect to the seriousness of the offence will be said in the way of submissions in court on October 1."

Uneasily shifting from side to side the diminutive Smith, who said he was working as a barman and studying at home school for a GED at the time of the attack, had told the court he was an easy going guy who never hit girls.

But the court heard how Smith, of Sunset Mews, Pembroke had snuck into a cab full of strangers on February 2 last year and rowed with the occupants moments after it left Dockyard.

The jury heard stabbing victim Shanae Outerbridge tell how she had seen him punch her cousin Hanifah Taalibdin before he turned on her after she had asked him: "Why did you hit a girl?"

The pair fought and clashed again after Ms Outerbridge had seen Smith floor her friend Taniq Smith.

Ms Outerbridge tackled Smith again as he sought to escape in a car and then felt a hard blow to her stomach which turned out to be the stab wound.

It narrowly missed vital organs including her colon, bowels, ovaries and fallopian tube, put her in hospital for four days and cost her $6,000 as she was uninsured.

The red-handled Swiss penknife, which was never found, was wrestled from Smith by Jamie Raynor as Smith tried to get away. Mr. Raynor threw it over a nearby wall.

Smith denied stabbing Ms Outerbridge but claimed he had been punching out in self defence as he was besieged by an angry mob of seven people.

Smith had told the court: "I don't hit girls, I have to be really provoked to hit someone back, especially a female."

In her summing up to the jury his lawyer Elizabeth Christopher asked: "Why, if he had a knife, didn't he use it earlier when he was attacked by a group of people?"

She quoted a security guard who had told the court it was like "all hell had broken loose" and the taxi driver who described the scene as resembling a "rugby scrimmage".

And she said her client could not have landed the hard blow while he was sitting in the car.

However Mr. Rayney said Smith had been aggressive from the start in the taxi and said he had exaggerated the onslaught by claiming a busted nose and split lip.

Smith had agreed he probably would have touched his nose after being hit there but Mr. Rayney asked: "Where is the blood on the steering wheel, on the brake, anywhere else?"

The only blood evidence from the car had been on the driver's head rest which Smith had moved to, from the passenger's seat, after the stabbing said Mr. Rayney.

Smith finally escaped on friend Jason Anderson's motorbike.

Ms Christopher claimed Smith's jacket had been ripped during the fight and his blood was all over clothes worn that night.

But the Prosecution said Police had only collected the clothes four days later and simply taken items Smith had pointed at when they arrived with a search warrant at his home.

Smith also faces further sentences after the jury unanimously found him guilty of assault causing actual bodily harm for punching Ms Outerbridge's cousin Hanifah Taalibdin - an offence which carries a two-year maximum sentence.

An 11-1 decision found him guilty of possessing an offensive weapon which also carries a maximum two-year sentence and/or a $1,200 fine. Ms Christopher declined to comment.