A MAN who raped a girl he met in a pub after threatening to slash her to ribbons has failed in an attempt to have his conviction overturned.

Michael Grey, 21, of Stump Cross, Guisborough, east Cleveland, raped the girl in his mother's house after meeting her in a Redcar pub in April 2002.

He was sentenced at Teesside Crown Court to five years in a young offenders' institution in November 2002.

But his challenge to the conviction was thrown out by Lord Justice Waller, at London's Criminal Appeal Court.

Nigel Shepherd, for Grey, argued he had not been adequately represented at trial. He claimed lawyers had failed to cross-examine the victim properly regarding an earlier allegation of rape she had purportedly made against another man, and an incident in which she had allegedly shaved off her hair and claimed she had leukaemia.

But Lord Justice Waller rejected the arguments, saying that trial counsel "certainly was not incompetent" and had not prejudiced Grey's defence.