Police pursued a heroin case against Takiya Rabain -- even though her father took full responsibility for the drugs, a court heard yesterday.

Victor Rabain gave Police a complete confession and admitted possessing and importing the drugs.

Officers, however, pressed on with a probe into his 23-year-old daughter, said Sgt. Hayden Small under questioning from defence lawyer Mark Pettingill.

Mr. Pettingill put it to Sgt. Small: "You had a detailed confession indicating that these were Mr. Rabain's drugs, he alone was responsible for them and he was probably going to sell them.'' "Yes,'' replied Sgt. Small.

And he also admitted that Police had an indication that Mr. Rabain would plead guilty if charged.

It also emerged yesterday that Police had no information about Victor Rabain's involvement in a $250,000 stash of heroin found in his daughter's bedroom until more than two months after the discovery.

Sgt. Small was the officer in charge of the investigation. Yesterday he was questioned by Senior Crown counsel Vinnette Graham Allen about the execution of a search warrant at the Rabains' home.

A total of four bags of brown powder were recovered from Takiya's bedroom closet at her home in Somersall Road, Smith's, on January 25 last year.

Analysis showed it to be 108 grammes of heroin with varying degrees of purity.

The drugs were found one by one, and on each occasion, Takiya said she did not know what the packages were and started crying.

Two of the packages were found in the pockets of jackets hanging up in Takiya's closet, and when asked by Police, she said: "Oh man, that's not mine.'' The court heard that Takiya's father, Victor Rabain -- who is divorced from Marva Rabain -- was not contacted in relation to the case until April 3 when Sgt. Small received instructions to go to the office of the family's lawyer Mark Pettingill, where an informal meeting was held.

At the meeting, Mr. Rabain relayed a scenario to Police regarding the drugs that were found at his ex-wife's house.

Police later spoke with Mr. Rabain on May 3, when he went to Hamilton Police Station for an interview and on May 31 he was arrested for suspicion of possession of a controlled drug with intent to supply.

On June 2, a short form preliminary inquiry was held for Mr. Rabain in Magistrates' Court, and he was committed for arraignment on July 1, and on August 1, pleaded guilty to possession of diamorphine with intent to supply.

After Mr. Rabain was convicted, he was sentenced to ten years in prison and the charges against Marva Rabain were dropped, but Police continued to pursue their case against Takiya Rabain.

The court also heard that the papers prepared for Takiya Rabain's short form preliminary inquiry were the same as those prepared for Vincent Rabain's short form preliminary inquiry.

Mr. Pettingill established that Sgt. Small put the papers together for both Takiya and Victor Rabain; out of the 19 items of evidence against Victor Rabain, 17 were exact duplicates from Takiya's file.

The only two different pieces of evidence were the statements of Mr. Rabain.

Mr. Pettingill queried: "So it was a different case but the same subject,'' but Sgt. Small corrected: "Different defendant, same case.'' Mr. Pettingill established that there was no evidence that Takiya was involved with her father's actions and there were no fingerprints to indicate that she handled the drugs.

He also noted that Takiya had completely and emphatically denied involvement with the drugs which Police found at the scene on January 25. Soon after Mr.

Pettingill had finished his cross examination, Ms Graham Allen started to clarify certain points, but the jury had to be excused while legal arguments took place for the rest of the afternoon.

The case is being heard before Justice Wade-Miller and continues today.