14-year-old girls was freed yesterday pending his appeal.

Defence counsel, Richard Hector, told the court yesterday that it would be a "grave misjustice'' if his client spent the full six-month term in jail and then won his appeal after being released.

"It is significant that this is not just an appeal against sentencing, it is also an appeal against conviction,'' he said.

On September 5 John Dexter Seaman, 34, was found guilty of three counts of knowingly and wilfully contributing to a child to become in need of care, protection and control.

Before handing down the sentence last month Magistrate Carlisle Greaves said he was imposing the six-month sentence and a fine of $420 for each charge to send a message to the community.

"A message must be sent -- young girls of this sort must be protected from persons like you,'' he said.

The girls -- who can not be named for legal reasons -- last month told the court they met Seaman when they visited his shop after school.

Seaman invited and paid for their cab to join him at the Palmetto Bay Hotel in Flatts.

Police later raided the hotel with a search warrant and found Seaman in bed with the two girls, and several empty wine bottles about the room.

They all denied any sexual contact had occurred; Seaman claimed love bites on his neck were from his girlfriend who he said told him she would be unable to come to the hotel at the last minute.

Another 15-year-old girl told the court she and a friend had got "messed up -- totally drunk'' with Seaman and his girlfriend at the hotel the previous week and all four of them had again slept in the same bed.

Senior Magistrate Will Francis granted bail yesterday pending the outcome or abandonment of the appeal and imposed an extra $1000 surety.

US VISITOR FINED FOR DRUGS CTS US visitor fined for drugs A Long Island computer technician was fined $450 yesterday for having cannabis hidden in her luggage when she arrived at the Bermuda Airport last Saturday.

Police found 5.98 grams of cannabis in a rubber glove hidden inside the luggage which Risa Greenfield, 29, brought off an American Airlines flight when she arrived in Bermuda for a holiday.

Defence counsel Tyrone Chin told Senior Magistrate Will Francis that his client suffered from a painful lumber spine condition which was relieved when she smoked cannabis.

Mr. Francis said he took her condition into consideration and had imposed a lesser fine because of it, but she was still guilty of having an illegal drug.