A MAN jailed for eight years after being convicted of raping a teenage girl was freed yesterday by judges who ruled his convictions were unsafe.

Nigel William Dack, 41, of Princess Royal Park, Scarborough, was found guilty by a York Crown Court jury in March last year of four counts of rape.

But London's Criminal Appeal Court yesterday overturned his convictions and refused a Crown application for a retrial.

In declining the application, Lord Justice Pill said the court took into account the time Mr Dack had already served in jail.

"We have regard also to the seriousness of the allegations against him as reflected in the sentence and we have regard to the overall circumstances considered in the judgement given by the court," he said.

One successful appeal ground related to the jurors, who had retired to deliberate, asking to see the video tape of the girl giving evidence.

Lord Justice Pill said the trial judge failed to give them sufficient warning and directions about how to view that tape in the context of the whole case.

The trial judge's summing up to the jury had been unbalanced, he said.

Mr Dack's lawyers referred to letters which had come to light which the jury did not see. It revealed that the girl had had sex with a youth of her own age.