A man jailed for stupefying and raping his niece has had an appeal against conviction dismissed.
The man was found guilty by a jury on three counts of raping the 16-year-old and one of sexually violating her by way of unlawful sexual connection in 2006, and was sentenced last September to 10 years in jail.
Details about him were suppressed to protect the victim.
A Court of Appeal judgment released today said the offending occurred over a six day period when the victim went to live with the offender and his family after struggling to support herself financially while flatting.
While the offender's wife was overseas he had on three occasions given his niece a drink laced with an unidentified substance after she complained of headaches.
On two occasions the victim was left unconscious after being carried to bed and woke with vaginal pain.
On the third occasion she was conscious and tried unsuccessfully to resist the man's sexual advances.
The incidents happened in August 2006, but it wasn't until the following February that the victim went to police, who later recorded two phone conversations between her and the uncle.
One of them was played in court but the other was not after the trial judge ruled it was likely the man realised he was being recorded.
The man appealed through his lawyers in October 2008, claiming the verdict was unreasonable and couldn't be supported by the evidence.
The defence claimed a miscarriage of justice had occurred due to an error in the judge's summing up.
Eight grounds of appeal against conviction were set out by the defence, but all were dismissed by the appeal court.
