49-year-old man who admitted having sex with his 17-year-old daughter.

The Jamaican-born man -- who cannot be named for legal reasons -- was sent to jail for 21 months at Supreme Court yesterday. The maximum sentence for the offence is seven years.

But Women's Advisory Council chairman Angela Berry -- herself a lawyer -- said: "This sentence is saying to men that they can almost get away with anything with a slap on the wrist.

"It makes a mockery of what we are trying to do to show the seriousness of crimes committed against women.'' Puisne Judge Vincent Meerabux handed down the sentence after pleas for leniency from defence counsel Richard Hector.

Mr. Hector said the defendant noticed a change in his daughter when she returned from a visit to her mother.

He added: "He said at times he thought she was trying to seduce him. He had wanted her to go to boarding school abroad.'' Mr. Hector said the daughter reminded the man of her mother, with whom he was still in love. And he pointed out that there was "only one incident of this kind and added "it is to his credit that it only happened on one occasion.'' "There is no evidence of psychological injury,'' Mr. Hector added. "And he took contraceptive measures.'' But Ms Berry said: "It doesn't make any difference if it's the first time or it happened on a number of occasions.'' She added: "There is a cavalier attitude to this kind of offence in Bermuda -- it's appalling, especially considering the sentence in the Middleton case this year.

"I am the mother of two daughters. It frightens me to think this kind of thing can happen and it also frightens me how the courts will handle it.

"We need to get more serious about it and we are -- but unfortunately the wheels move slowly.'' Sentence criticised lives abroad with her mother, lived in Pembroke with her father and her brother.

The girl shared a bedroom with her brother across the hall from her father, but on July 20, 1995 the boy was on a trip overseas.

Around 4.30 a.m. the girl was awakened by someone leaning over her.

Upon seeing her father, the girl tried to get out of bed but was pushed back by her father.

Mr. Bourne said the girl struggled and tried to push her father away, but he did not move.

The father grabbed the girl's wrists, pulled her arms to the back of her head and with his free hand tried to pull down his daughter's night shorts.

Mr. Bourne said that during the struggle the daughter was screaming: "No daddy, no daddy!'' The father told the girl to stop screaming, as the neighbours might hear, and had sexual intercourse with her.

The court heard that the terrified girl locked herself in the bathroom -- but was forced to come out when her father took the door hinges off.

Mr. Bourne said the father often asked his daughter not to tell anyone about the incident.

The next day the girl called her mother, who was abroad, and told her of what happened. The matter was then reported to Police.

King Edward VII Memorial Hospital's Dr. Keith Cunningham examined the girl and said she sustained an internal tear.

After his arrest, the man told Police that he went into his daughter's bedroom that night to close her window.

Upon entering the room, he said he saw his daughter lying in a position that "excited him'' and then went back into his room and put on a condom.

Mr. Bourne said the man admitted forcing his daughter to have intercourse and said he flushed the condom down the toilet after the incident.

The man claimed he was depressed and felt his daughter had taken the place of her mother in his life.

Mr. Bourne urged Mr. Justice Meerabux to take a "serious view'' of the case and take into account the victim's age and virginity and the fact she was forced into the act.

The sobbing father-of-two told the court yesterday: "There was a time when if someone was to tell me that I would do such a thing I would have been furious.

The only answer I can come up with is that stress and responsibility were tearing me apart and times of loneliness.

"I would find myself having to drink to calm myself to go to sleep at night.'' The man pleaded to having carnal knowledge of his daughter -- then aged 17 -- on July 20, 1995.

The "broken'' man professed his love for his daughter and broke down during his apology to his daughter and her mother.

"From the day my children were born, I gave up my life for them,'' he said.

"I never left them home alone and unprotected at night to go and sleep out.'' The man suggested: "If my daughter's dress code had not changed since she came back from her mother's...I talked to her about it.

"I'm sorry I crossed that line,'' he added. "I will continue to love my children and do what I can for them.'' Mr. Justice Meerabux told the man that as a father, the burden of responsibility for the "grave'' incident rested on his shoulders.

"Incest between a father and daughter is serious,'' he said. "Daughters have to be protected ...and other fathers have to be deterred.'' But he said he took into account the man's guilty plea, his cooperation with Police, his previous clean record and the fact that the incident only happened on one occasion.

WOMEN WOM CLUB CLB