Three years after a judge threw out the case against him, a young man will on April 5 hear if he is guilty of intruding on the privacy of a girl.

Magistrate Edward King cautioned the Pembroke man, now 19 years old, that he did not have to take the stand in his own defence yesterday nor did he have to call witnesses.

The instructions, which at first the man seemed not to understand, were repeated twice by Mr. King.

A Supreme Court judge turned back one of two charges in March 1998, saying a Magistrate would have to hear the charges again.

Yesterday was the first time the case file had been retried.

Mr. King indicated it was through his intervention that the case had returned to his bench, saying he had repeatedly alerted all who would listen that "there is a case that has been hanging about''.

While he gave no indication of how he will rule, in 1997 Mr. King found the young man had no case to answer and there was insufficient evidence on the alleged February, 1997 incident.

Police originally charged the young man on two counts of going into an Old House Lane, Pembroke home uninvited and harassing two 12-year-old girls.

The Crown appealed Mr. King's dismissal of the case, convincing Puisne Judge Vincent Meerabux who ordered the defendant back before a Magistrate for intruding on the privacy of one of the girls.

On March 8, 1997 Mr. Meerabux said: "The learned Magistrate got mixed up on what constitutes intrusion and privacy. There is prima facie evidence and I accordingly allow the appeal.'' Yesterday, Mr. King told Crown counsel Peter Eccles: "Mr. Meerabux turned his mind to it, yes. But this young man did not have counsel. No one to stand up to Mr. Meerabux or to you. It would have been different.

"He had no one to point out one way or the other that not leaving the house when told to was intrusion or being an unlawful entry or even trespassing,'' Mr. King added.

"Look at what her evidence (of what he did) and then read what his statement to Police says,'' he continued. "You see Mr. Eccles, there is a little problem. This was never brought back. So much so that the other person who was not before the courts in 1997 can't even be charged now.

"One question is whether justice is being served for this man to come back down here and testify now in his own defence. It's through no fault of his own or anyone elses!'' Mr. King, as is a Magistrate's duty, acted in some ways as a lawyer for an unrepresented person.

At one point yesterday, the man's mother, anxious to have the matter "thrown out'' tried to speak in his defence.

Mr. King, finger in the air, sharply told her: "This is not for you.'' The case was the first that Mr. Eccles, a Canadian, handled and yesterday was one of his last appearances before the court.

It is understood he is returning to private practice in Canada next week.