OFFENDER JAILED FOR RAPE AFTER COURT REJECTION OF APPEAL
A rapist who left his victim wanting to "burn her own skin off" has failed to clear his name.Mark Marchant, 38, raped a woman after picking her up and carrying her to a bedroom at a party in Weston-super-Mare.
The woman said she woke to find him raping her and had to fend him off attacking her again.
She wrote a letter to Marchant which was read to the original trial, BristolLive reports.
She said: "You are my rapist." "I feel like I want to take my skin off, burn it off." "I feel sad, angry and alone." "You didn’t just take my body, you took me." In his appeal, Marchant argued that the trial judge had intervened in an unfair way while giving his evidence.
The judge's questions were queries that should have been left to the prosecution, he said.
And in giving him a warning about his evidence, the judge created an "inhibiting and intimidating" atmosphere which prevented Marchant from telling his story freely.
Dismissing the appeal, Lord Justice Leggatt, sitting with Mr Justice Lewis and Judge Peter Lodder QC, said some of the criticisms of the trial were valid.
Some of the judge's questions during his evidence "delved into matters which should have been left for the prosecution to explore", he said.
The appeal was refused and Marchant's conviction upheld.
Marchant was jailed for eight years but took the case to the Court of Appeal to try to clear his name.
Marchant, of Handley Road in Cardiff, was convicted of rape at Bristol Crown Court but continued to claim that sex with the woman was consensual.
He claimed mistakes made by the judge who heard his case meant he had not had a "fair trial".
But judges at the Court of Appeal rejected Marchant's appeal.
The court heard Marchant and the woman had both been to the party, where drugs and alcohol were consumed.
When some of the partygoers left and others went to get more drugs, the woman fell asleep on a sofa.
She stirred when he picked her up, but thought he was being kind and putting her to bed.
The court also noted that Marchant argued that the trial judge had intervened unfairly, with some questions delving into matters better left for the prosecution and warnings that created an intimidating atmosphere.
However, the court concluded that these interventions did not prevent him from giving his account and refused the appeal, upholding his eight-year prison sentence.
