LANCE Corporal Daniel Smith is back in conditions "certainly better than a jail,'' looking forward to a visit from his family this month, and finding comfort in a two-inch stack of Christmas cards from people who believe he is innocent of raping a Filipino woman.

But the convicted US Marine now sleeps in a room different from where he earlier stayed and where his co-accused buddies had claimed seeing "ghosts,'' according to his spiritual adviser, Fr. James Reuter.

The 90-year-old American Catholic priest, who has maintained early on that Smith was wrongfully convicted, shared details of how "Dan'' had settled back into US custody, four days after his controversial, late-night transfer from a Philippine jail.

Reuter said Smith, who had spent 27 days at the crowded Makati City Jail but in a room separate from the other inmates, was "generally in good spirits and cheerful'' about his return to previous quarters in the US embassy.

He said he visited the 21-year-old serviceman at the US embassy in the afternoon of New Year's Eve. He earlier saw Smith four times when the latter was still at the MCJ.

"It was still real incarceration,'' the priest said, noting that two US Marine guards posted outside Smith's room would not allow the soldier past the door. The room itself, as Reuter recalled seeing that day, was practically bare except for a bed.

"But certainly it was better than a jail,'' he added. He felt "no suffocation'' inside the room.

"It made life easier for him,'' Reuter added, noting that Smith had been "in jail in the last 14 months'' since he and four other Marines were accused of raping a Filipino woman. The three other accused were subsequently acquitted.

In his one-hour talk with Smith that afternoon, Reuter said, the soldier mentioned his family's plan to visit him, their arrival tentatively set on January 15 at the earliest.

The priest added that in his own correspondence with the Smith family, who are based in St. Louis, Missouri, "they said they would like to come but are frightened of the media, the crowds, after seeing on TV what happened inside the courtroom.''

The corporal's family was apparently referring to the commotion, a sort of tug-of-war for Smith, which erupted moments after Makati City Judge Benjamin Pozon pronounced him guilty and ordered him temporarily committed to the Makati jail.

Apart from minding the expenses for the trip, "they are afraid they might be manhandled (when they get here) that's why somehow they would like to have security,'' Reuter told the Inquirer in a phone interview.

According to the priest, Dan's family consisted of his parents, an elder brother aged 24, and a younger brother aged 18.

The soldier, an amateur "wrestling champion'' in high school, would teach especially the younger sibling some moves on the mat, Reuter fondly noted.

During the New Year's Eve visit, Smith had also shown him a two-inch stack of Christmas cards he got from people who had expressed "support'' when he was still at the Makati jail.

"He was grateful to everyone'' and did not voice out any complaints about his stay at the jail or "harsh words'' against the rape complainant "Nicole,'' Reuter added.

During Reuter's visit, Smith was staying in the room that earlier held Lance Corporal Chad Carpentier, one of his three co-accused Marines, during their four-month marathon trial.

"I also blessed that room, which used to be Chad's, because the guards said the other three (co-accused) were complaining that they have seen ghosts,'' Reuter said, without elaborating.