Magistrate Edward King made his first appearance in court yesterday nearly a month after he was moved to family and juvenile court following a courtroom argument with Crown counsel Larry Mussenden.

And the Senior Crown counsel who took Mr. Mussenden's place yesterday said he was called in "on short notice'' after it was decided to be "inappropriate'' for his junior to appear before a Magistrate against whom he had registered a complaint.

Peter Eccles appeared for Mr. Mussenden after Mr. Mussenden filed a "notification of an incident'' against Mr. King earlier this month.

It followed a courtroom flare-up which resulted in Mr. King allegedly ordering Mr. Mussenden to be taken to Hamilton Police Station in handcuffs for being "rude'' to the bench.

Mr. King has admitted calling Mr. Mussenden a "coward'', but denied instructing Police officers to take the lawyer to the Police station in handcuffs.

Mr. Mussenden spent 20 minutes at the Police station and was reported to be preparing to sue Mr. King for wrongful arrest.

When asked yesterday after the case why Mr. Mussenden had not appeared, Mr.

Eccles said: "I felt it was inappropriate for him to appear in front of Mr.

King while a complaint against him was in the process of being reviewed.'' Mr. Eccles arrived in the court room 20 minutes after the session's scheduled start, when a trial date was set for Stephen Barry Paynter, of Keith Hall Lane, Warwick, who is accused of growing cannabis.

Mr. Eccles told the court: "I'm sorry I'm late your worship. I was called here on short notice.'' When asked afterwards if he had been called in as a replacement because of tension between Mr. Mussenden and Mr. King, Mr. Eccles said: "Personal feelings belong outside the court room.

"We're supposed to go in there and be ministers of justice. We don't need the added stress of being muzzled by personal tensions in there.

"It does create a difficult situation, people being what they are. But, when it comes to deciding who appears in what courtroom with what magistrate, personal feelings don't come into it at all.

"We have to do our job no matter how we feel about the people we're working with. But you just can't appear in front of a magistrate if you have a complaint pending against them.'' Acting Director of Public Prosecutions William Pearce complained on behalf of Mr. Mussenden to Chief Justice Austin Ward. He termed his correspondence with the Chief Justice as "an official notification of an incident''.

Mr. Ward is preparing a report for Governor Thorold Masefield who will decide what action, if any, is taken against Mr. King. The Governor has the ultimate power to sack Mr. King.

The Bermuda Bar Association met Mr. Ward to complain about the case. Bar Association president Richard Hector said lawyers were "up in arms'' about the incident.

A further meeting is scheduled between the Bar Association and Mr. Ward.

A Government Information Services spokesman said last night that Mr. Ward had not completed his assessment of the incident, but that reports from Police officers involved were being sent to him.