Paul David William Le Geyt (27) is alleged to have committed the offence on the morning of 18 October 2018 in the company of another man, who was not identified.
Crown Advocate Richard Pedley, prosecuting, told jurors that on the day the offences were reported to have taken place, the defendant left town at 8.30am and cycled west from the area of the Steam Clock with another man, past the Waterfront, through Jardins de la Mer and towards Victoria Avenue.
By 9.20am, Mr Le Geyt is alleged to have entered a property at the bottom of Beaumont Hill, and a man was reportedly spotted by a passer-by jumping over the front wall, onto the adjacent road.
The witness, who was walking home, called the tenants of the property to alert them that she had seen someone acting suspiciously around their home.
The court heard that the passer-by then saw the same man cycling towards St Aubin for a short distance before turning around and heading back the other way, towards town.
Crown Advocate Pedley added that one of the tenants arrived home to find the gate open and a man at the front door, who then ran across the road and onto the beach near the Gunsite slipway while being chased by the tenant, who grabbed him. However, the man got away.
The court heard that police officers found Mr Le Geyt a short time after and, following a brief chase on foot, the defendant was found hiding in an outbuilding on a residential property. He pulled out a penknife and was sprayed with PAVA spray before being arrested, jurors heard.
Mr Le Geyt denies one charge of illegal entry and larceny and a further count of violently resisting arrest.
One of the officers involved told the court that the defendant had threatened to ‘bite their fingers off’. However, jurors also heard from a crime scene investigation officer who had conducted an examination of the property following the alleged incident.
He said that tests for fingerprints and DNA had been inconclusive but added that he had found a footprint similar in size and pattern to the shoe seized from Le Geyt.
‘I cannot say for sure that that shoe made that mark but it is of the right size and pattern,’ he said.
The trial continues.
