A college student who brought to Bermuda a pair of sneakers containing heroin with a street value of $51,840 hidden in the soles has explained why she initially lied to Police about the person who had given her the shoes.

Shaunnah Dill, 20, went on a three-day trip to New York in April, 2004. Returning to Bermuda International Airport, part of her hand luggage was a plastic bag containing two pairs of men's sneakers.

A jury at the Supreme Court was told she had been given by a friend in New York to pass to a loose acquaintance in Bermuda called Jamie.

The jury has heard that a Police dog called "Rokki" alerted its handler to the presence of drugs in the bag, and when Dill's luggage was searched at a Customs checkpoint two packages containing 77.78 grams of a brown powder containing ten percent heroin was found hidden in the sole of a pair of brown New Balance sneakers.

Dill told Customs officers and Police at the airport that she did not know what the packages were and claimed she had been given the sneakers to bring back to Bermuda by a man she only knew as 'Ian'.

The court heard that Dill, of Sousa Estate Road, Devonshire, stuck to this story in a subsequent taped Police interview.

However, giving evidence in court she admitted the man who gave her the bag with the sneakers was called Ian DeSilva with whom she had a relationship in 2002 before he left Bermuda.

She met him again during her trip to New York and agreed to carry two pairs of sneakers back to Bermuda for another man she knew only as Jamie, the court heard.

Dill denies she had any knowledge heroin was hidden on one pair of the sneakers before being confronted at Customs.

She has pleaded not guilty to one charge of importing a controlled drug and one charge of possessing a controlled drug with intent to supply.

In court, lawyer Victoria Pearman asked Dill why she had initially lied when interviewed about the identity of the man who had given her the shoes.

Dill replied: "Because I didn't want them to think that because I loved him I would do something like this."

She was asked: "Do you have feelings for him now?" to which she replied: "None. It is my life he has ruined."

Giving evidence Dill told the jury she had met Ian the evening before she flew back to Bermuda and he had asked if she would take two pairs of sneakers back to the Island for a friend called Jamie. She agreed and carried the sneakers in a plastic bag as hand luggage on an American Airlines flight.

When the drugs were uncovered at the Customs checkpoint Dill was arrested and said: "Oh my God, You've got to be kidding me. Are you serious?" before crying.

In cross-examination Crown counsel Anthony Blackman asked Dill if she disapproved of drugs and drug-dealing. She replied she did. He then asked if it was correct that on at least three occasions after the heroin was found in the sneakers she had failed to reveal to the authorities the true identity of the man who had given her the shoes. She said yes, but added she could not have given them Ian's address in New York as she did not know it.

The case continues.