TORONTO -- A Toronto doctor has lost custody of his seven-year-old daughter because he whisked her off to live with him in Bermuda against court orders.

Yesterday Madam Justice Janet Wilson varied her original judgment and gave custody of the child to her natural mother, also a Toronto doctor. She found Peter Roderick MacLellan in contempt of court on December 23 last year and when he didn't purge his contempt by returning his daughter by January 17, she reversed the terms of custody.

"This court continues to have jurisdiction over the child,'' Mrs. Justice Wilson wrote in an eight-page judgment released yesterday. "The child is a Canadian citizen, and has lived in Canada all her life until her abrupt departure in November, 1996.

"The respondent (Dr. MacLellan) misrepresented the facts to the court at trial and before the custody judgment was released.'' Mrs. Justice Wilson said Dr. MacLellan, who has since remarried, knew he would be in contempt of court if he took the child from the jurisdiction, but he still did it. His own lawyer sent him a letter telling him a custodial parent could not unilaterally change the child's place of residence.

The judge said she did not want Dr. MacLellan to be arrested in the presence of his daughter because it might hurt her further.

"I therefore defer the sentencing of the respondent for his contempt until he returns to the jurisdiction, and until all of the circumstances are known to the court.'' She said the "fiasco'' in the rearing of the girl "lies at the feet of both parties''. But the father's blatant disregard for his undertaking to the court in August, 1996, was "reprehensible''.

He had told the court that if he was awarded custody of the child they were going to put back the pieces of their lives in the Toronto area. He undertook an oath to encourage and foster communication between the child and her mother. He also agreed to retain and encourage the daughter's relationship with her foster family and to participate in counselling and therapy with a child psychiatrist.

Mrs. Justice Wilson said it is a condition of her custody order to the mother, Marguerite Kopaniak, that they continue counselling with the psychiatrist.

The psychiatrist Clive Chamberlain is to report to the court within seven days of the return of the child to Toronto.

Dr. Chamberlain will decide whether the father should have access to the child after he returns to Toronto, the judge ordered.

"When the matter returns to court the terms of custody and access will be reviewed, taking into account the radical changes in the (father's) circumstances which have effectively made access between the child and the (mother) impossible. Both parties will have an opportunity to present material.'' Mrs. Justice Wilson also said neither parent will remove the child from the jurisdiction, if she is returned, and they must surrender any travel documents to the Registrar of the Family Law Division in Toronto until further order.

"I have not made this variation without a great deal of thought, and concern for the child having regard for the long and bitter history. In the short term it may be best to leave the child in Bermuda to adapt to her unexpected and new life, insulated to some degree to the continued conflict between the parties.

"On the other hand, the respondent's conduct after the trial brings into question the continued appropriateness of my custody judgment,'' she concluded.

She said had she known Dr. MacLellan was going to run off with the child she would have imposed terms forbidding him from taking her out of the country.

She said the issue of permanent custody, access, and residence of the little girl will be reviewed by the court after Dr. MacLellan returns to Toronto with her.

She ordered Dr. MacLellan to pay $16,738.23 in court costs.