Hunger striker rape appeal denied

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/7026121.stm

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A convicted rapist who has gone on hunger strike twice has been refused permission to take his case to the House of Lords.

It was Oswald Brown's final attempt to clear his name of the 1999 rape.

The 38-year-old former television DIY expert from east Belfast, was sentenced to six years in 2001 after being found guilty of raping a student at her flat.

Three Appeal Court judges ruled his case did not involve a point of law of general public importance.

They also told the father-of-two's lawyers that they would not be paid out of the public purse, the Legal Services Commission.

Lord Chief Justice Sir Brian Kerr said: "We have concluded that this was an application which was utterly bereft of merit and was always a fruitless one."

Brown was released last year and went on hunger strikes for 52 days and 60 days to highlight what he claimed was a wrongful conviction.

He ended his last fast in July after the Appeal Court agreed to look again at the appeal he lost in 2002.

But the judges refused to reopen the appeal, saying they were satisfied that no injustice would accrue.