Published Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Lawyers for William Gary Mason claimed bad character evidence introduced at his second trial was wrongly handled.
Mason, 48, and formerly of Waverley Court, Lisburn, Co Antrim, is seeking to overturn guilty verdicts on two counts of rape and five of indecent assault.
He was jailed for 11-and-a-half years at Belfast Crown Court in June 2009.
Mason was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life and barred from working with children.
Prosecutors had claimed he plied the 16-year-old girl with drink before assaulting her in his van on different occasions in 2006.
Mason, who denied the allegations, was convicted first of one count of indecent assault.
He was found guilty of the other charges following a retrial.
His legal team challenged the convictions in the Court of Appeal on Tuesday, claiming they were unsafe.
Barrister Mark Barlow contended that jurors at his client's second trial were not correctly advised about how to handle the earlier conviction.
He claimed insufficient warning was given to them about the irrelevance of some aspects.
It was also argued that too much emphasis was placed on the girl's change in demeanour as she started drinking as potential evidence of abuse.
But Ken McMahon QC, for the prosecution, said it had not been likened to other general indicators.
He told the court: "The Crown was not saying this is a girl being affected in such a way in her behaviour such as bed-wetting or becoming withdrawn."
Following submissions by both sides the three senior judges hearing the appeal reserved their decision.