OWEN OYSTON won't be celebrating his release from a six-year prison sentence for rape until "I have cleared my name."

The champagne could be on ice for a long time as he faces a lengthy battle.

From his first day in prison after sentence at Liverpool Crown Court in 1996 Oyston, his family, and his legal team have been working on one appeal after another.

MP Dale Campbell-Savours says he believes Oyston is innocent and has joined the fight, asking questions in the House of Commons.

He has worked on the bid for parole and has called for the case to be investigated by the Criminal Cases review Commission.

Two appeals to the High Court were lost and his wife Vicki took an application to the European Court in Strasbourg, claiming that his trial was unfair under Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

In between, just before another court hearing, his victim won agreed civil damages - thought to have been more than £100,000 - in a secret deal between lawyers.

She is also thought to have been given thousands of pounds from the Criminal Injuries Board. Finally, after three years and 198 days behind bars, a second Parole Board hearing - ordered by a judicial review in the High Court - allowed Oyston his freedom on licence.

Jailing him, Mr Justice McCullough said the then owner of Blackpool Football Club, a chain of radio stations and glossy magazines had shown not a hint of remorse for his young victim.

"You were 58.

"She was 16.

"You were rich and powerful with a strong personality.

"She was young, dependent and vulnerable".

However, Oyston has never admitted his guilt.

He believes he has been the victim of a political conspiracy by his many enemies, particularly Conservative friends of Mrs Thatcher, and he remains convinced that he will one day prove his innocence.

Last year Miss B, now believed to be living in Manchester, complained to Cosmopolitan magazine that the tactics of the Oyston defence team went "far beyond the bounds of decency and honour in trailing for dirt."

She said: "No matter what he says - and no matter how many millions he pours into defending his name and trying to ruin mine - he wlll always know exactly what happened that night."

The champagne is on ice . . .

In a live TV interview outside the Commons, Dale Campbell-Savours MP announced tnat he was widening his investigation of the Oyston case to include what he described as "major political conspiracy in Lancashire."

This is believed to refer to the civil case being brought by former deputy leader of Preston Council Frank McGrath who is suing two former government ministers and the estate of the Blackpool businessman Bill Harrison who died earlier this year.

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