sentenced to 12 years in prison for importing heroin is to face a retrial.

Floyd McCoy Hayward won an appeal against his conviction and will be re-arraigned on a charge of importing diamorphine. He was remanded in custody pending the appearance.

Hayward, 45, of Friswell's Hill, Pembroke, will be re-tried after the Court of Appeal ruled the trial judge failed to give the jury directions on law with regard to certain evidence.

The accused, who denied the charge, was found guilty last September after the jury heard how he was discovered unconscious on a British Airways flight from London to Bermuda.

A doctor on board said he had suffered an overdose after injecting himself during the flight.

A plastic bag containing 81.5 grams of heroin was discovered in his underwear.

On arrival in Bermuda, Hayward was transferred to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital for treatment.

Lawyer Elizabeth Christopher, acting for Hayward, appealed on the grounds that the Bermuda Supreme Court had no jurisdiction. And she questioned the admissibility of evidence given by witnesses who said the defendant admitted to them that he used drugs.

The third strand of her appeal was that the judge failed to instruct the jury properly on questions they submitted after they had retired to consider their verdict.

In their written judgment, the Court of Appeal panel said the judge, Puisne Judge Philip Storr, failed to direct the jurors on how they should treat evidence with regard to the burden of proof.

"From the form of the questions submitted by the jury to the judge during their retirement, it would appear that the jury entertained some doubts on the evidence in the case,'' they said.

"In the answers given to some of the questions, the judge correctly told them there was no evidence. In the answers to other questions, while he did point out what the evidence was, he failed to direct them how they should treat the evidence having regard to the burden of proof.'' Re-trial: Floyd Hayward (right) at an earlier court appearance.

DRUGS DGS