ONE of the world's leading bird experts who was jailed for smuggling endangered parrots into the country is to appeal against his conviction.

Harry Sissen, 61, will go before the High Court in London on November 17 to fight against a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence handed out by a judge sitting at Newcastle Crown Court in April.

The highly successful breeder maintained his innocence throughout the three-week trial. He was charged with illegally importing three extremely rare Lear's macaws and six blue-headed macaws into the UK.

It took a jury seven-and-a-half hours to find Sissen guilty on a majority verdict.

Despite the jury's decision, Sissen shouted in court: "If there is a God I can stand in front of him with a clear conscience - I did the right thing."

Tory leader William Hague was a key prosecution witness in the case. He told the court that Sissen had confessed during a visit to the Richmond MP's constituency surgery to smuggling rare birds into the country.

Sissen's daughter, Yvonne Scales, yesterday told The Northern Echo that she hopes the appeal judge will overturn the original verdict.

She said: "It is so important for us to get him back home. I do not know whether I am coming or going at the moment.

"I used to believe in British justice but I don't any more. This country stinks. I hope the appeal will restore my faith in the system."

Customs and Excise confiscated 139 birds in a raid on Sissen's home in East Cowton, North Yorkshire in April 1998.

The Sissen family is praying for the day that the birds are returned.

Miss Scales said: "I hope they all come home. Home where they are safe, home where they belong.

"We always looked on them as family. We didn't own them.

"Where they are now they are prisoners as much as my dad is. But they are prisoners that don't know why the hell they are there and why they have been taken away from the people they trust."