A 34-year-old shopkeeper will spend six months in jail after being caught in a hotel room with a pair of 14-year-old girls.

John Dexter Seaman, of Wellington Back Road, St. George's, pleaded not guilty in Magistrates' Court to four counts of knowingly and wilfully contributing to a child to become in need of care, protection and control.

Two 14-year-old students, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said they knew Seaman because he owned a shop they visited after school.

On Friday February 6, 1998, Seaman invited them to visit him at the Palmetto Bay Hotel in Flatts where he was having a "weekend getaway'' with his 19-year-old girlfriend.

The girls said they gathered up a few clothes and caught a taxi -- which Seaman paid for -- to the hotel later that evening.

They showered, changed, and asked Seaman to give them money to go out for the evening.

The two girls said they went to a few nightclubs and drank rum, vodka and wine before returning to the hotel room at about 5 a.m.

They said they changed into nightclothes -- one girl dressed in pyjamas and a t-shirt, the other in a halter top and tight shorts -- and slept in the same bed as Seaman.

Police obtained a search warrant and went into the hotel room where they discovered Seaman with the two girls.

Police said they discovered bottles of wine in the room, birth control pills in a drawer, and noticed Seaman had hickeys on his neck and chest.

Seaman, who was unrepresented by a lawyer, denied knowing the girls planned to use the money he gave them to buy alcohol -- despite testimony from both girls who claimed he bought the wine discovered in the hotel room for them -- and said his girlfriend had given him the hickeys.

Both Seaman and the girls denied there had been any sexual activity between them.

But a 15-year-old girl said she and her friend had spent the previous weekend with Seaman and his girlfriend at the hotel -- claiming she got "messed up -- totally drunk'' before the four of them slept in the same bed together.

Seaman, who owns a business called Personalised Printing Services, said the company was so named because "we're on a personal level with our clients''.

He said the minors in his hotel room were friends with him and his girlfriend because they were so close to his girlfriend's age.

And he admitted that he was "upset'' when his "lady friend'' told him she would not be able to come to the hotel on the night of February 6 -- since he was "mindful of the implications -- what it might look like'' if the girls were found alone with him.

And in closing arguments, Seaman said he could "appreciate the prosecution's case'' since his actions were "potentially incorrect'' -- but claimed no ill-intentions were involved.

"I felt I was doing them a justice, rather than an injustice, by allowing them to stay considering the state they were in,'' he added.

Magistrate Carlisle Greaves yesterday said Seaman's arguments were an "affront to common sense''.

"What manner of man is this?. ..Is this the manner in which a reasonable 34-year-old-man should behave with 14-year-old girls?'' said Mr. Greaves before finding Seaman guilty of three of the four counts against him.

Crown counsel Lesley Basden said Seaman had convictions of a similar nature against him.

In September, 1988 he was sentenced to a year imprisonment for three counts of wilfully committing an indecent act.

And in 1982 he was found guilty of committing an indecent act with intent to offend or insult.

Mr. Greaves sentenced Seaman to the maximum sentence -- six months imprisonment and a fine of $420 for each count. The sentences are to run concurrently.

"A message must be sent -- young girls of this sort must be protected from persons like you,'' said Mr. Greaves before handing down the sentence.