Yesterday it took a Supreme Court jury less than an hour to reach a unanimous verdict to find Roderick George Astwood guilty of possession of diamorphine intended for supply.

Chief Justice Austin Ward will sentence Astwood, 42, today, after defence lawyer Mark Pettingill asked for time to prepare for the conclusion of the case.

Astwood was found guilty of having 0.43 grams of heroin, hidden in "decks'' behind his ear and in a plastic bag secreted in a hole in an alleyway wall.

In addition he was found to have over $600 on him at the time.

Tests showed the drugs to be 74 percent pure -- a ratio said to be rare in Bermuda and not seen since the early 1990s. Heroin normally found on Bermuda's streets is around 30 percent pure.

Astwood was caught in June this year, after he was spotted by a Reserve Police officer taking money from passers-by and disappearing down an alleyway, returning to hand them something.

A uniformed officer told the court he had followed Astwood into the alleyway off Elliott Street after he had walked past him and another officer, and watched as he reached up into a hole in the wall, placing a package of drugs there.

A search after his arrest revealed wraps of heroin behind his ear and more of the drug in the bag found in the wall -- all packaged up in $20 decks.

The Crown alleged the high purity of the drugs found, the way it was packaged and the manner in which Astwood was acting prior to his arrest all confirmed that the drugs were his and that he was dealing from the stash.

But defence lawyer Mark Pettingill said the prosecution case was full of holes and contradictions, and it would be a quantum leap to connect the drugs in the wall to the defendant.

He also said there were differences in the version of events told by the three officers involved and questioned whether they had actually seen him place the drugs in the wall or whether the drugs had been found in a later search.

In addition he said there was no evidence of Astwood's fingerprints on the bag found in the wall or that the bag was even tested for prints by Police.