2017: JAILED EVESHAM PENSIONER ARNOLD BELEJ CONTINUES TO DENY SERIES OF CHILD RAPES
A PENSIONER facing a 17-year prison sentence for a series of child rapes continues to claim he is innocent, the Court of Appeal heard today.Arnold Belej, 72, from Evesham, was jailed in March last year after he was convicted of nine rapes, committed when he was a young man.
The offences only came to light decades after they took place when his victim came forward to report the attacks.
But Belej, of Lingfield Road, claimed she was lying in a trial at Worcester Crown Court and the Appeal Court heard he has still not confessed.
Trying to appeal against his convictions, Belej had put forward a raft of complaints about the way his trial proceeded.
He claimed it meant the jury's guilty verdicts were tainted and should be quashed as "unsafe".
However, Mrs Justice McGowan told the Court of Appeal that Belej's complaints amounted to simply "continued protestation of innocence".
That cannot lead to a successful appeal unless there is a ground for finding that the convictions were unsafe," she continued.
"In our view, there was no such ground." His appeal bid was refused by the judge, sitting today with Lord Justice Treacy, Mr Justice Coulson and Mrs Justice McGowan.
