A HEADTEACHER who was jailed for historic sex crimes after being extradited from Spain has today failed in a bid to overturn his convictions.

James Berry, 78, subjected two victims to repeated attacks during prolonged ordeals that included rape.

The abuse of his first victim started in 1963 and involved him punching and throttling her at addresses in Glasgow, Renfrew and Houston and subjecting her to rapes.

He also subjected the second victim to sexual abuse, beginning when she was a child in 1969, and raped her.

Berry had denied the offences during a trial in February but was ordered to spend eight-and-a-half years behind bars after being found guilty of five charges of assault, indecent assault and rape.

Sentencing him at the High Court in Edinburgh, judge Thomas Welsh told Berry that his crimes could be properly described as "heinous."

Berry's lawyers brought a legal challenge against his convictions but the appeal has now been refused by judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh.

Scotland's senior judge, the Lord Justice General, Lord Carloway, said: "The appeal is based on a combination of oppression based on delay and unfair trial based on the unnecessary reliance on hearsay (evidence).

"The court is not persuaded either of these has been made out or a combination of these."

Lord Carloway, who heard the appeal with Lord Pentland and Lord Matthews, said they would give full reasons in writing later.

Defence counsel Claire Mitchell KC told the judges there was "a lack of sufficient procedural safeguards" in the case against the unfairness of evidence that was admitted at the trial.

She said the question posed for the appeal judges was: "Did the appellant have a fair trial in all the circumstances?"

Ms Mitchell argued that a number of factors taken together rendered Berry's trial unfair.

She said one of the victims had developed Alzheimer's disease and subsequently died, with her evidence at the trial led in the form of two statements taken from her by a police officer.

The defence was unable to test her testimony in cross-examination and jurors could not assess her demeanour, added Ms Mitchell.

"The Crown should have acted with all due speed when they became aware the witness had Alzheimer's," she said. "The opportunity was lost to have this witness in person."

Ms Mitchell argued that, if the Crown had moved faster, the defence might have been in a position to take a statement from the victim and she might have been able to give evidence before her illness progressed too far.

She also said the Crown had relied on mutual corroboration to seek convictions against Berry but the second victim's evidence contained "major contradictions."

John Keenan, for the Crown, asked the judges to refuse the appeal and argued that adequate safeguards were in place to ensure the fairness of the trial.

Berry, of Mallorca, was headteacher at King Richard III College, a private school on the Balearic island, where he lived for 30 years.

He had claimed the allegations against him were part of a "criminal conspiracy."

A European arrest warrant was used in 2019 to bring Berry back to Scotland to face justice.