abrupt halt yesterday morning after a female juror fell ill.

Puisne Judge Philip Storr told the 11 jurors present at the start of the session a juror was hospitalised on Tuesday evening and she was not due back until yesterday afternoon.

Floyd McCoy Hayward, 45, of Friswell's Hill, Pembroke is charged with importing 81.5 grams of diamorphine (heroin) on a British Airways flight on April 9.

Mr. Justice Storr adjourned the trial until this morning when the sick juror is expected to return.

On Tuesday Hayward alleged he must have been injected with heroin by someone who wanted to make him a decoy. He denied he used drugs and claimed he never used a needle to inject himself with drugs.

The seven-woman, five-man jury heard evidence from Hayward, who allegedly passed out in mid-air and almost died from a drug overdose during a British Airways flight to Bermuda.

The court also heard earlier Hayward drifted in and out of consciousness as a result of a heroin overdose and had to be attended to by Clare Holt, a doctor who was on the plane.

Hayward claimed he could not recollect what happened on the flight after he drank a soda, went to the bathroom on the plane, and fell asleep.

Crown counsel Patrick Doherty asked Hayward during cross-examination about the needle tracks which were seen on his arms on April 9.

Maralyn Lloyd, an Emergency Department nurse at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, told the jury Hayward admitted at 11 p.m. on April 9 he uses heroin and he snorts it.

Larry Packwood, a medical technician who rode in the back of the ambulance from the airport to the hospital with Hayward, said he asked him if he was taking drugs.

He said he reached over and whispered softly into Hayward's ear "we are only here to help you, I am not a Policeman''.

Mr. Packwood said Hayward then told him he was using drugs, but he did not explain what type. The court also heard closing arguments yesterday.

Defence lawyer Elizabeth Christopher claimed the person who put the drugs on her client recognised he or she could make a profit by losing some drugs but getting others in.