Predator fails to get quashed convictions

Robert Wesley Collier claimed fresh evidence suggested that one of his victims may have known a juror at his trial.

But top judge, Lord Justice Davis, branded his appeal “speculative” and said there were no grounds for doubting the jury’s verdicts.

Collier, of Edale Close, Atherton, was caged for seven years at Liverpool Crown Court in June last year.

He was convicted of three counts of sexual assault and one of indecent assault.

The 60-year-old abused one of his victims over 20 years ago but the other, aged under 16, was assaulted more recently.

After Collier’s trial, his older victim said she wished she had come forward years earlier, and so prevented his later crime.

Collier’s case reached London’s Appeal Court as he attacked his convictions as “unsafe” yesterday.

But Lord Justice Davis, sitting with Mr Justice Gilbart and Judge Michael Stokes QC, said his concerns about the juror were based on “complete speculation”.

He concluded: “Overall, we consider that this material is wholly insufficient to justify further investigation. These convictions can properly be regarded as safe.”

At the original court case carried out three of the assaults on the 11-year-old in a caravan in Blackpool.

Her parents noticed a change in her personality but put it down to her age and it was only when a trip to see the Blackpool illuminations was mentioned that she told them what had happened and they alerted the police.

As a result of this a woman whom he had molested in 1995 came forward and told what he had done to her while she was babysitting aged 15.

The court heard that the more recent victim now finds it difficult to go out and is withdrawn.