shield a young girl while she gave evidence against her father during an attempted inquest trial in the Supreme Court.

The questions came after the 40-year-old Devonshire man, also accused of sexually exploiting his daughter, was acquitted by a Supreme Court jury on Friday.

The child, who was 11 years old at the time of the alleged incident, testified on two separate occasions during the trial in full view of her father and more than a dozen strangers.

Sheelagh Cooper of the Coalition for the Protection of Children yesterday told The Royal Gazette that the girl should have never had to testify in front of her father.

"She shouldn't have to testify in Court in full view of the defendant,'' Ms Cooper said. "It is incredibly hard for an adult to do, but for a child it's even more difficult. They should have had a screen.'' And Ms Cooper said she had personally provided the court with a specially-made screen.

"They are supposed to provide a screen so that they will never have to cross paths.''.

During a lunch-time deliberation, a six-man, six-woman jury came to a majority decision to acquit the man of all charges.

The father of four, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was charged with sexually exploiting his daughter and attempted incest on April 3, 1996 in Somerset.

Throughout the week-long trial the man maintained nothing improper happened when he woke his daughter up at 2.30 a.m. and took her to his bedroom to rub his neck and back.

He said the child made up the allegations because she did not like living with him.

The man and his common-law wife of 25 years had separated before the alleged incident and the girl and two of her three brothers were living with their father.

But the man's daughter maintained that her father made sexual advances towards her when he woke her up during the early hours of the morning.

She claimed that he removed her underwear, rubbed himself against her groin and tried to get her to touch his penis while they were in his bed.

Dr. Keith Cunningham of King Edward VII Memorial Hospital testified that he found evidence of frictional injury to the girl's groin when he examined her.