TYCOON Owen Oyston, serving six years in a Lancashire jail, will seek leave to appeal against his conviction next Thursday (June 12). Media tycoon Oyston was sent down last May after being found guilty of the rape and indecent assault of a former East Lancashire model who is now seeking damages of more than half a million pounds. Oyston, Inmate KE2535 at Wymott Prison, near Leyland, has maintained all along that he is innocent. His appeal will feature the introduction of what his legal team calls "extraordinary" new evidence. Oyston's legal representative said: "Our client was convicted without any corroborative evidence. No complaint was made at the time or indeed until years afterwards and only then in a blaze of publicity. The model in question couldn't even remember whether the alleged offences took place in 1991 or in 1992. Our client was wrongfully convicted and we are confident that leave to appeal will be granted." Among the points which Anthony Scrivener, QC, will be making to three appeal judges are that the girl, known as Miss B, could not remember when the offence took place; she complained years afterwards when police were interviewing her about another matter; vital police interview notes had been inexplicably lost, and there was no scientific, medical or other evidence.

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