Supreme Court jury found him guilty of incest and not guilty of rape yesterday.

He was sentenced to five years in prison.

The jury spent three hours deliberating before returning a majority verdict on both counts.

Before his sentence the man asked Puisne Judge the Hon. Mr. Justice Ward for mercy.

"I am humiliated by this verdict but the jury has spoken,'' he said, swallowing hard as tears ran down his face. "Through this decision my strong bastion of being a father has been taken away.

"This is a damaging situation not merely to my self-esteem but to my children who will suffer in a punitive society as I have found Bermuda to be. "I can only bow to your Lordship's mercy.'' The man was charged with raping his 25-year-old daughter though he maintained he was never convinced she was his daughter.

She came to live with him at his apartment in Sandys Parish in April, 1991 just one month after he was granted parole for good behavior.

He had served six years of a 12-year sentence for attempted murder of his ex-wife.

His daughter testified that on the morning of February 15, 1992 she returned to the one bedroom apartment she shared with him and his two sons.

The two boys were staying at a neighbour's home.

She said she had a brief conversation with her father who was lying on the living room floor, then she went to the bedroom, undressed and came back to the living room.

After turning on the television she fell asleep. She said she was awakened by the man who was kneeling on the floor in front of her rubbing his hands between her legs.

She reported he then grabbed her around her neck and throat and forced her onto the floor where he had sex with her without her consent.

The woman said she waited until later that morning before going to Hamilton Police Station where she reported the incident.

The man steadfastly denied knowing she was his daughter even after three expert witnesses testified that he was `very likely' her father.

Dr. John Bowen who is specialises in DNA analysis with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Ottawa, and Isabelle Trudel, a Biologist also with the RCMP, testified that the chances of a man picked at random matching the complainant's DNA profile was 5800 to 1.

Usually a match of 400 to 1 in considered almost certain paternity. DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid is found in almost every cell of the human body. It carries the information that is necessary for life.

Despite this evidence the man stuck to his story that the complainant was not his daughter, though he admitted introducing her as his daughter to his sons.

He also visited her regularly at the foster home where she was living, and on one occasion gave her a severe beating because she was misbehaving when she was 12.

The man said he made up his mind while in prison in 1988 that the complainant was not his daughter when he found out she had two children for his ex-wife's boyfriend.

Under reporting restrictions which came into effect this year, the convicted man cannot be identified because it would lead to the identification of the complainant.