the Island's top legal brains occupied for a third successive day tomorrow.

Anthony Swan, 37, of Rockaway Estates, Southampton, was charged with burglary and assaulting a Police officer on November 12 1996. The handbag and its contents which he allegedly stole from an Oxford Guest House apartment was worth just over $200.

But instead of letting the case be heard before a magistrate Swan elected to plead his innocence before a jury in the Supreme Court.

The case is being presided over by Chief Justice Austin Ward, the Island's most senior judge.

Yesterday the jury of seven men and five women heard how Swan had made a full and frank admission about the break-in when questioned by police.

Det. Chief. Insp Carlton Adams, one of Bermuda's most senior detectives, and Det. Con. Terrence Maxwell, who carried out the investigation, both had to spend the day in court as they were cross-examined, first by prosecutor Ms Charlene Scott and then by Swan.

Statements made when Swan was first questioned about the break-in, all of which were signed by the defendant, were produced in court and read out to the jury.

And when questioned both detectives remained adamant that the interviews, in which Swan admitted that he had carried out the burglary, had all been carried out in the proper manner and that Swan remained cooperative and polite throughout.

But when Swan began his cross examination he implied that he had been forced to make a confession and had been denied the right to an attorney.

And when he took the stand to present his own defence he claimed that he was repeatedly kicked in the face by an officer shortly after his arrest.

And in a bizarre performance he also confessed the reason why he had a handbag on him when he was stopped was because "I committed a crime before I went to the Police Station''.

The case continues today.