The trial of a man accused of tossing drugs and alcohol into prison began yesterday in Magistrates’ Court.

Jovon Virgil, 26, has denied charges of possessing heroin with intent to supply, simple possession of cannabis, cannabis resin and bladed articles, tossing items including bottles of alcohol into Westgate Correctional Facility and unlawfully entering the same facility.

PC Dawrae Gibbons told the court that at 2.26am on January 21, last year she was on duty with another officer in Sandys when they received a report of someone throwing objects over the wall at Westgate. They drove to the facility, entering through the main gate and noticed a man in the field near the western fence of the prison.

“When we got there he had just finished throwing an object,” PC Gibbons said. “I saw a white object. I don’t know what it was but it was white. It just dropped down by some rocks right there by the border.”

She said her partner jumped out of the police car and ran towards the suspect but stopped when he noticed a fence separated them and there was no way to get to the other side. The suspect meanwhile ran onto the field.

PC Gibbons said two other units were approaching the field from the other side so she and her partner drove to the nearby Prison Officers Club.

“There are steps that lead from the field to the club so we drove to that parking lot,” she said.

She told the court that after an unsuccessful search of the area, she returned to Somerset Police Station as her shift had ended. She said she only learned later that day, when she returned to work, that Mr Virgil had been arrested.

She told the court that the suspect she saw was wearing two jackets — a grey, hooded sweatshirt with the hood up and a black jacket with a white symbol on the back. She was unable to determine the suspect’s ethnicity, height or weight.

Cross-examined by defence lawyer Shade Subair, PC Gibbons agreed that in her police statement — written in July of 2013 — she described the suspect as wearing a grey, black and white hoody with red writing and a white “x” emblem on it.

She also acknowledged that she had the opportunity to see the clothing Mr Virgil was wearing when he was arrested after she returned to work but said the description in her statement was based on contemporaneous notes made before she saw the seized clothing.

PC Gibbons added that the clothing worn by the defendant when he was arrested appeared “similar” to that worn by the man she saw at the prison fence.

The court also heard that among the items recovered by officers during the investigation was 13.19g of diamorphine, which is more commonly known as heroin.

In a written statement read to the court, Detective Sergeant Hayden Small said the heroin could fetch as much as $6,160 on the streets of Bermuda if sold in 3mg “decks”, and was not likely intended for personal use.

Also seized during the investigation were two bottles of unspecified alcohol in plastic bottles, cannabis, cannabis resin, tobacco and a bag of oats.

The trial is scheduled to continue later this month, with Mr Virgil remaining in custody until then.