bitter battle over child custody, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

Dr. Peter MacLellan has been ordered to remain in Canada after he was released from prison on a Cnd $200,000 bail by an Ontario judge. He spent about 16 days in a Toronto detention centre.

Scots-born Canadian citizen Dr. MacLellan -- who appeared wearing handcuffs -- will appear in court again in a week's time to be sentenced for contempt of court.

Meanwhile the Ontario Court of Justice has impounded Dr. MacLellan's passport and ordered him to report in daily to the authorities.

Dr. MacLellan -- who came to Bermuda with his daughter after a bitter custody case in 1996 -- was arrested and locked up after he went to Canada for a medical conference earlier this month.

He spent more than a fortnight in jail before appearing in court last week.

The case centres around a tug-of-love between Dr. MacLellan -- an anaesthetist at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital -- and ex-wife Marguerite Kopaniak, also a doctor, over their ten-year-old child.

Dr. MacLellan was granted custody of the girl, then aged six, in August, 1996, on condition he remained in the Toronto area, participated in counselling by a court-appointed psychologist and fostered an ongoing relationship between the girl and her mother.

But Dr. MacLellan, who married a Bermudian lawyer, moved to the Island only days after the judgment with his new wife, a Bermudian lawyer.

And that led to the threat of arrest for contempt of court if he returned to Canada.

The same judge who awarded him custody, Justice Janet Wilson, reversed her custody order in February, 1997.

Justice Wilson said then: "The father's conduct has deprived the child of a relationship with the mother.

"The respondent's (Dr. MacLellan's) conduct since the conclusion of the trial, including his clandestine departure from the jurisdiction with the child... is reprehensible.'' And at another hearing in April this year, another judge, Mr. Justice Walsh, threw out a bid by Dr. MacLellan to have several orders of the court dismissed.

Justice Walsh said: "There is little doubt the respondent flagrantly disregarded the judgment of Justice Wilson.

"It is clear he acted in bad faith and against the advice of his counsel.

"His actions violated the undertakings he gave to the trial judge and completely frustrated the intended goals of the custody order'' And Justice Walsh added: "Justice clearly prevents a custodial parent from avoiding the obligations imposed on him/her by simply removing the child from the jurisdiction.

"Deliberate attempts on the part of custodial parents to frustrate the rights and obligations imposed on them by the courts cannot and will not be tolerated.''