A CONVICTED rapist has taken on the Law Lords in his latest bid for freedom.

Kenneth Williamson took his case to the House of Lords on Friday to appeal against his conviction after it emerged the jury foreman at his trial was a Crown Prosecution Service solicitor.

Williamson, now 21, was sentenced to 10 years in a young offenders institute after being found guilty of two counts of rape in February 2005 at Warrington Crown Court.

Williamson, of Greenwood Crescent, Orford, was convicted of breaking into a mum-of-one's home and storming her bedroom before raping her twice at knifepoint.

Now a decision has to be made whether to overturn the conviction on the grounds that Williamson did not receive a fair trial.

His case is one of three the Law Lords are ruling on, which, if successful would see a controversial law thrown out which allows lawyers, judges and police to sit as jurors.

This week his solicitor John Banasko, who attended the hearing, said: "The result of the Lords hearing will not be known until October.

"If Kenneth's sentence is quashed it is likely a retrial will be ordered and then it will go back to the Court of Appeal.

"This result could be groundbreaking for the law as we know it."

The law was changed three years ago to prevent jury service exemptions previously enjoyed by solicitors, doctors and other public figures.

In another attempt to quash Willamson's conviction in 2005, the UKs top judge Lord Woolf gave his backing to the current policy part of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 which enables figures in public prosecution roles to administer justice.

The issue was known from the start of the case after the CPS solicitor wrote a letter to Warrington Crown Court explaining that his job entailed him advising police on charging Despite this Judge David Hale, who presided over the hearing, decided that it did not prejudice Williamson's case.

After being found guilty, the Orford man's defence Richard Carey-Hughes maintained his client did not receive a fair trial because of the profession of the lead juror.

beckykelly@guardiangrp.co.uk