The girlfriend of a man charged with possession of almost $1 million of heroin with intent to supply told a jury that the suspect usually stayed at her apartment rather than his own.

In Supreme Court yesterday, Anna Lambert also insisted that she spent the night with Winston Paynter the day before he was stopped by a police mobile patrol in April, 2019.

A subsequent search of Mr Paynter’s apartment on North Shore Road, Devonshire, uncovered drugs, firearms ammunition and other incriminating evidence.

Mr Paynter, 42, who works as an appliance technician, maintains that he knew nothing about the drugs because he was never at his apartment. Instead, he had effectively moved in to Ms Lambert’s home on Poinciana Road, also in Devonshire.

Mr Paynter also claimed that a cousin had moved in to his apartment – and was there with friends the night before Mr Paynter was arrested.

Taking the witness stand, Ms Lambert said she had known the defendant for around 20 years and that they had a 13-year-old son.

She said the couple had initially lived together in St David’s, but split up in 2016, when they moved to separate apartments in Devonshire.

Ms Lambert added: “By March 2017 we had reconciled the relationship and he started living with me.”

She told the court that, by 2019, the couple had developed a routine where, after work, Mr Paynter drove his company van to his house, dropped it off, and then drove to Ms Lambert’s home in his own private vehicle.

Ms Lambert said that on the evening of April 10, Mr Paynter drove his work van to his North Shore Road property. But because his private vehicle was off the road, Ms Lambert picked him up shortly after and drove to her apartment, where they spent the night.

On the following day Mr Paynter was stopped by police in Warwick while travelling between customers in his work van. He was arrested on suspicion of being in possession of an illegal substance and subsequently questioned by officers. Both properties were later searched.

Questioned by defence lawyer Marc Daniels, Ms Lambert insisted that she had never known Mr Paynter to be involved in any drug activities, and that, apart from his regular job, he worked hard as a youth football coach.

But Alan Richards, for the Crown, questioned how Ms Lambert could know what Mr Paynter did when at his apartment.

He said: “You are telling us that by 2019 you had no need to go to the North Shore Road property, so you cannot know what Mr Paynter had in his house or in his van, can you?”

Both prosecution and defence lawyers are expected to deliver their closing arguments today.

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