A sex attacker who molested a 13-year-old girl in a car was ordered to go before a Magistrate for sentencing yesterday.

Cecil Eardley Smith, 54, denied sexual exploitation of a girl under 14 last May.

But he was found guilty in his trial last September and lost his appeal to Chief Justice Austin Ward yesterday.

The Supreme Court hearing was told how Smith, of Tills Hill, Pembroke, touched the girl's private parts as he drove her along Wilkinson Avenue in Hamilton Parish.

Prosecution lawyer Lesley Basden claimed he told her: "It's all right to be scared.'' And she said the girl slapped away Smith's hand when he tried to touch her leg again later, on Berkeley Road in Pembroke.

Smith, represented by lawyer Philip Perinchief, was appealing against his Magistrates' Court conviction before being sentenced.

He claimed he only touched the girl to point out a friend's house -- then to comfort her because she could not find a swimsuit she wanted.

Mr. Perinchief filed six grounds of appeal, claiming the girl gave evidence "under duress' and saying the Magistrate made legal errors.

But Mr. Justice Ward dismissed the accused's case yesterday and ordered him to be sentenced.

Smith's bail was extended, but he will now have to appear before Senior Magistrate Will Francis next Tuesday.