OWEN OYSTON could be back home in time for Christmas - if his appeal against his conviction for the rape and indecent assault of a 16-year-old model is successful. The Lancaster-based tycoon, who has a major shareholding in Bay Radio and is chairman of Blackpool FC was given leave to appeal two months ago. Now he faces another two-month wait until his appearance in the Appeal Court on Monday, November 24. By then he will have served 18 months of his six-year sentence. Two days have been set aside for the hearing at which Oyston, 63, will be represented by Anthony Scrivener and Antony Shaw, the team who last June won him the right to the appeal and who represented him early last year through several court hearings. At one stage Oyston, now serving his sentence in Wymott Prison near Leyland, faced charges involving six girls. Cases involving three girls were thrown out at the committal stage and he was found not guilty of alleged offences against two more girls.

He was found guilty of the offences against the sixth girl, an East Lancashire former model known as "Miss B" who is now in her early 20s. They were said to have taken place at his castle, Claughton Hall, on the outskirts of Lancaster.

The appeal will almost certainly hang on new evidence which the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Bingham, agreed could now be presented.

Some of the main points of the appeal, revealed exclusively to the Citizen, are:

Over the period Miss B claimed she was raped she said in evidence she had "no contact with people like boyfriends..." Within weeks she was writing letters of a sexual nature to a boyfriend she met on holiday. He has sworn an affidavit in which he confirms a sexual relationship. The Oyston team recall the trial judge describing Miss B as "young, dependent and vulnerable" and says the letter "gives a different impression."

Miss B was never able to say when the rape took place. She could not remember the day, the week, the month, the season, nor whether it was 1991 or 1992. On the seventh day of the trial, for the first time, she said that both offences took place between October 4, 1991 and December 31, 1992 - a 15-month period.

The housekeeper at a house in Sale, near Manchester, where Miss B and other models lived, remembers Miss B being excited about the trip she had made to Claughton Hall. The housekeeper, in her affidavit, says: "(Miss B) had a distinctive accent and I could hear her say in a loud voice 'I've been up t'castle and it was great and I had a look round'."

Miss B said in evidence she had finally left the model agency on October 4, 1992 after a row. She said her life had been messed up. "I hate everybody. I cannot take discipline. I hate having sex." However, she continued to attend the agency for a further six months and introduced a friend, according to the new evidence.

Witnesses have said that Miss B was in Oyston's company significantly after the date of the rape. One was told by Miss B that she had visited Oyston's house and had been impressed. "She inquired as to whether I had visited his home, referring to it as a castle."

A decision on the appeal could be made immediately, although judgment could be deferred for a short time. Oyston's wife Vicki, who has fought a tireless campaign, said this week: "We believe we have built up a good case for Owen's freedom. We are confident we will be successful."

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