Cousins accused of assault not guilty

Saturday 6th September 2008, 9:59AM BST.

TWO cousins charged with beating two men to a bloody pulp with a wooden bat walked free from court yesterday after being found not guilty.

The jury accepted that William Dubois (36) and Ben Mackenzie had acted in self defence when they inflicted serious injuries on William Manson and John Nicolle.

It took the eight men and three women around three-and-a-half hours to reach their verdicts in the Royal Court yesterday.

Mr Dubois was charged with a grave and criminal assault on both Mr Manson and Mr Nicolle. Mr Mackenzie was charged with the same offence in relation to Mr Nicolle.

The jury had sat through four days of evidence, which included the testimonies from the witness box of all four protagonists.

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