TYCOON Owen Oyston has launched his fight for freedom - almost 12 months since being jailed.

A file of new evidence has been sent by lawyers to London where three judges are expected to consider in the next few weeks whether to grant him leave to appeal against his six-year sentence for the rape and indecent assault of a 16-year-old East Lancashire model girl.

The owner of Blackpool Football Club, a chain of glossy magazines and two radio stations, he is now prisoner KE2535 in Wymott Jail. His wife Vicki runs the Oyston Group and campaigns for her husband's release. He is the richest inmate in Britain's prison system.

It is believed the application for leave to appeal will be made for Oyston by Anthony Scrivener, QC, former chairman of the Bar Council who defended him in three rape rials last year. Oyston was acquitted of other offences in each of the three trials.

At his third trial in April last year, he claimed he had been the victim of a long-running plot to destroy him, which was prompted and funded by Tory MP Robert Atkins and former Foreign Office Minister Lord Blaker.

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