BRITAIN
This is London
By Court reporter
A Hindu priest convicted of twice raping a temple-goer has launched an appeal to clear his name.
Ramanathan Somanathan, 42, of Colvin Road, Thornton Heath, was jailed for 12 years at Croydon Crown Court in February after he was convicted of two counts of rape.
But lawyers on his behalf told Lord Justice Kennedy, sitting with Mr Justice Bell and Mrs Justice Dobbs at the Appeal Court in London on Tuesday, that Somanathan's convictions were "unsafe" and should be overturned.
It was the prosecution case that Somanathan, the aya at the Sivaskanthagiri Arulmigu Murugan Temple, in Thornton Road, Thornton Heath, had forced himself on his victim when he went to her home to say prayers in 2002.