Privy Council in a bid to get her seven-year jail term quashed.

Tyrell, of Silk Alley, St. George's, was convicted by a jury in May of importing cannabis worth more than $100,000 and possession of cannabis with intent to supply.

Last month the Bermuda Court of Appeal threw out her bid to seek leave to appeal against the sentence and conviction.

The Court said: "In the present instance the Defendant (Tyrell) did not plead guilty and there were no effective mitigating circumstances. We are unable to accept that the sentences imposed were manifestly excessive.'' However, yesterday her attorney, Mr. Phillip Perinchief, said he had been instructed to take the case to the Privy Council, in England, and if necessary the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

At issue, said Mr. Perinchief, was the quality of note-taking by the judge in the original case.

Supreme Court judges have to take hand-written notes of testimony, although the Tumin Report on the Criminal Justice System recommended using stenographers.

He felt the transcript the Court of Appeal relied on was "potentially tainted by the fact a Police statement passed as testimony'', the essence of the statement having been incorporated in the judge's summation to the jury.

"In my view the quality of such records is not the quality one should rely on or feel comfortable with when attempting to dispense or receive justice fairly,'' he said.

"It strikes at the very root of the administration of justice in our criminal justice system. In fact, to accept such a record may well bring the administration of justice into disrepute.'' He was taking the matter to the Privy Council and to The Hague if necessary as "a matter of urgent public interest''.

"The absence or potential tainting of the transcript of a trial is a very serious matter and it's certainly a denial of a human right to be treated fairly in a democratic society.'' "In my view, in these modern times, the International Court of Justice ought to be made aware of this potential in Bermuda, where judges and magistrates continue to transcribe by hand the trial proceedings.

"Many important omissions may be made by this method of note-taking. For such a vaunted, so-called sophisticated society, it is a most backward and retrograde practice that ought to be abolished immediately.'' This is the first such Bermuda case Mr. Perinchief is aware of, but there were precedents overseas where note-taking by judges was an issue.

He has retained Mr. Frank Phipps QC from Jamaica. Mr. Phipps had already contacted solicitors in London.

He said an application would be made in London to have Tyrell released on bail pending appeal.