The jury in a drugs importation trial had to ask the judge ten times for direction in law before they delivered their verdict, the Court of Appeal heard yesterday.

Attorney Elizabeth Christopher listed this as one of the grounds for her appealing the conviction of 45-year-old Floyd McCoy Hayward, who was found guilty last September of importing 81.5 grams of heroin into Bermuda.

Hayward, of Friswell's Hill, Pembroke, was arrested after a package of drugs was found stuffed down his trousers by a doctor as she examined him following his collapse on a British Airways flight from London to the Island on April 9 last year.

He was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the offence after Puisne Judge Philip Storr heard he was on a three year probation sentence at the time of his arrest and also that he had several previous convictions. Yesterday, President of the Court of Appeal Sir James Astwood remarked that this was "one of the most interesting cases I've come across''.

He was referring to the question of jurisdiction and the fact that Mr. Justice Storr had ruled that the offence could be tried in Bermuda.

Earlier, Ms Christopher argued that, since the heroin, with an estimated street value of $337,000, was taken from her client before the plane landed in Bermuda, he could not be rightly found guilty of importation. Ms Christopher said: "At the time Mr. Hayward was on the Island, the drugs were not subject to his control,'' she said.

"The defence's position is that he did not cause the package to be on the plane,'' she continued, "but even if he did, that act would not have been in Bermuda and the learned trial judge should not have found that he was responsible.'' Ms Christopher also said the fact that the jury asked ten questions of Mr. Justice Storr during their almost three-hour-long deliberation showed they were "somewhat confused''.

"The questions they asked suggest that the jury were reversing the burden of proof and looking to Mr. Hayward to prove his innocence rather than to the Crown to prove his guilt,'' she said.

"They were left hanging as to what they had to find to be the facts of the matter.'' Ms Christopher also argued that Mr. Justice Storr misdirected the jury before they retired to deliberate. She said evidence that he left to the jury to decide on should have been disregarded on the grounds that it was "prejudicial'' to her client.

The evidence which she was referring to was given by Emergency Medical Technician Larry Packwood, who testified that Hayward admitted to him that he used drugs.

Ms Christopher said this evidence was unreliable because the jury had no idea of her client's mental state at the time of saying it, and added that it was irrelevant to the importation charge anyway.

But, appearing for the Department of Public Prosecutions, Crown counsel Patrick Doherty said that, by bringing the drugs on to the non-stop flight in the first place, he had caused the importation to occur. After referring to several precious cases, he added: "The criminal code does not exclude people from the laws of Bermuda when some element of their crime is committed, or the person, is out of Bermuda.'' Referring to the fact that the steward had taken possession of the drugs when the plane landed, Mr. Doherty said: "The chain of causation is not necessarily broken when an innocent party becomes involved.''