'NEVER WAS ANY HEROIN'

Whereabouts Of Alleged Evidence At Heart Of Cop's Trial

ABRAHAM BAILEY, the former Toronto police officer charged with heroin trafficking, vented frustration in court yesterday as his lawyer prepared to have the case against him thrown out.  "There never was any heroin.  I've screamed there never was any heroin," Bailey, 54, said in court after pleading not guilty yesterday to possession of heroin and possession for the purposes of trafficking.

Bailey's trial was scheduled to start yesterday before Ontario Court Justice Bruce Young, but was delayed until Friday, when defence lawyer Harry Doan will argue to have the charges in the two-year-old case stayed.

At the heart of the defence argument are 51 grams of heroin that have "either gone missing from police custody" or were "never there, as a result of police failure to quantify the amount of substance at issue," Doan wrote in the motion.

OUT ON DAY PAROLE

Bailey was charged after 53.9 grams of heroin were allegedly found in his throat on June 18, 2002 during a random police search at a halfway house.  The former officer, who resigned from the force in 1996, was living at the Keele Correctional Centre while on day parole.

Doan said the amount of heroin now alleged is three grams.

"The big discrepancy in the amount of heroin that they say now exists is one of the cornerstones of the motion that we're going to be bringing," Doan said outside court.

At the time he was searched in 2002, Bailey also suffered from a "heart episode" and was unconscious for weeks in hospital.

In court yesterday, Bailey vented his frustration about the case, alleging the evidence against him had been "planted."

"Up until the 11th hour, it was 53.9 ( grams ).  Today I'm facing three grams," Bailey said.  "We've had a Houdini.  It has all disappeared."

He was cautioned by Justice Young to hold his comments.