NSW: Paedophile Bell loses right to appeal convictions
SYDNEY, Feb 1 AAP - Notorious paedophile Philip Harold Bell today lost his bid to appealhis convictions on child sex offences.
The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal refused Bell leave to appeal against convictions on28 charges involving five children.
Bell claimed he was convicted on uncorroborated evidence from one of his victims, andthat events and assaults alleged by the victim were the product of premeditated perjury.
However Acting Justice Rex Smart today said it was open for the jury in Bell's 1998trial to accept the victim's evidence.
"It was well open to the jury to reach the verdicts which they did. Any other resultwould have been surprising," he said.
"The verdicts were reasonable and amply supported by the evidence."
The former millionaire businessman was jailed in 1999 for 14 years, with a non-paroleperiod of 10-and-a-half years, on the charges he was found guilty of, plus another 47offences he admitted to against 18 boys aged 12-15 between 1978 and 1991.
Bell will be eligible for parole in 2007.
Bell had claimed he was not a paedophile but a hebophile, which he described as involvingthe reciprocal love of a man for a youth.
AAP gl/jjs/tnf/bwl
KEYWORD: BELL
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