A Court of Appeal case was held up for the third time yesterday when a man convicted of the manslaughter of his baby was granted more time to try to enlist the help of a top English QC.

Amenemhat Tamerry was convicted in June 2004, together with his wife Maatkari Tamerry, of the manslaughter of their ten-month-old daughter A-Maya who died of malnutrition in 2001.

He was sentenced to five years imprisonment last September, with his wife given a one-year sentence with a further three years of probation.

The court heard yesterday that former dentist Mr. Tamerry, 50, hopes to retain Courtenay Griffiths QC with the assistance of legal aid.

Mr. Griffiths made his name defending two brothers accused of murdering London schoolboy Damilola Taylor, and is a prominent campaigner against racism in the criminal justice system.

Tamerry's appeal against conviction had previously been adjourned on two occasions in March and June 2005 in order for his choice of privately-retained counsel to be made available.

In June, Appeal Court President Justice Edward Zacca agreed to adjourn the case until yesterday warning that if the Registrar was not was not informed by September 1 that private counsel had been retained, then the court would grant legal aid for counsel to represent Tamerry and the case would go ahead without further delay.

Explaining yesterday to the three Appeal Court judges why she wished to have the case adjourned again, Patricia Harvey said she was put in a very difficult situation after taking on the case on September 14 as a replacement for Tamerry's previous representative, Darrel Clarke.

Miss Harvey said she had "tried to move Timbuktu" to get things in place in time for yesterday's court hearing.

She explained that Tamerry had not been able to contact Mr. Clarke after the June hearing, finding that his phone number was ringing out of order.

After taking on the case, she discovered last week that it would not be possible for Tamerry to raise the finance to retain Mr. Griffiths privately as had been planned.

When this became evident, she advised her client to apply for legal aid but told the court this had happened too late for the case to be ready in time for yesterday.

She indicated that it was still hoped to retain Mr. Griffiths via legal aid, adding that it had been all but promised that legal aid would be given for a QC.

She said her client wished to apologise to the court for seeming to have disregarded the order made by the court in June but that he had been in a difficult position trying to conduct his affairs from jail.

She also asked for leave to appeal at a later date against Tamerry's sentence, although this application was made 'out of time'.

Vinette Graham-Allen, for the DPP, said of the application for a further adjournment: "I dare say this is a blatant disregard of the previous order of the court and that's happening too often in this jurisdiction. The court needs to send a message that orders must not be disobeyed."

But, after Justice Austin Ward and Justice Sir Anthony Evans questioned whether it was fair to blame Tamerry for "default of counsel" ? referring to his reported inability to contact Mr. Clarke ? Mrs. Graham-Allen said she would not oppose the application.

Granting it, Justice Evans said the court believed that Miss Harvey had made considerable efforts to deal with a difficult procedural situation since taking on the case and that there was no reason for criticising her part in the proceedings.

He said there "may or may not be" grounds for criticising inaction on the part of Mr. Clarke, but that since the court had not heard from him, "there is no need to say anything further" about this.

He said the adjournment was being granted due to "exceptional circumstances" and that the court did not want to dissent from Mrs. Graham-Allen's point that court orders should not be be ignored.

He put the case back to the next Court of Appeal session in March 2006 and also agreed to adjourn the application for leave to appeal against sentence.

Maatkari Tamerry, who was released from prison in March, has abandoned her own appeal against conviction.