prison sentence after finding him guilty of assaulting another man in 1999.

Wilson will be able to serve the sentence concurrent to a four year sentence he was given in September for assault.

Mr. King knocked back a request by Crown Counsel Graveney Bannister to have the sentencing sent to the Supreme Court where the maximum penalty is higher.

Mr. King had found Wilson guilty of wounding Richard Benjamin at 6.30 a.m. on October 10, 1999 at a gambling den on Court Street. The verdict came after a five day trial last week.

Wilson was found not guilty of another charge of possessing an offensive weapon because the den -- an apartment at 18 Court Street -- was not a public place.

The Crown alleged that Wilson charged at Mr. Benjamin because the victim had failed to make sandwiches for him.

While Mr. Benjamin gave his testimony in "a forthright and truthful manner'', Mr. King said, Wilson was "not at all convincing''.

"But he made it quite clear in his evidence that he did go after Mr.

Benjamin,'' he added. "And I accept Mr. Benjamin as a truthful witness.'' Mr. King said there was "no doubt in my mind'' that Wilson had a knife and Mr. Benjamin defended himself.

"That amounts to intending harm,'' Mr. King continued, adding Mr. Benjamin's action "was within the range of responses of a victim placed in that situation'' and "within the ambit of reasonableness''.

Mr. King concluded: "In the agony of the moment Benjamin acted without thought or deliberation and his thumb got cut.

"If you put a man in a situation where he smells danger -- the person who put him in that position is responsible for what happens to him.'' He also explained the offensive weapon charge saying that "just because there were people there that doesn't transform a man's castle into public domain''.

"If a man allows people to enter his residence with the purpose of listening to jazz, or gambling or prostitution, that's too restrictive to call it a public place because they were gambling there, whether legal or illegal,'' he said.

Mr. King noted that Wilson was in prison for an offence which occurred after the Benjamin attack and did not order a consecutive sentence.

Defence counsel Larry Mussenden said in mitigation: "Mr. Wilson accepts the decision of the court.'' Ellsworth Wilson