Lawyers for Billy Wright, the mid-Ulster loyalist recently jailed for eight years, claimed yesterday that his sentence was "manifestly excessive". They also argued that Wright's sentence was "out of all proportion" to his alleged offences.
The claims were made in High Court papers listing Wright's grounds of appeal against both his convictions and sentence. Wright (36), of Hartfield Square, Portadown, was jailed for issuing a death threat against a 42-year-old-woman, now in hiding, and of perverting justice by threatening her son.
The appeal papers allege the pair's evidence at Wright's trial contained "inconsistencies, lies and improbabilities", and should have been rejected by the trial judge, Lord Justice McCollum.
Referring to the judge's comment that he was satisfied beyond all reasonable doubt that he could reject the evidence of Wright and his witnesses, the appeal papers state: "The evidence of the appellant and of all his witnesses was, in fact, capable of belief and the trial judge ought not to have rejected their evidence in this fashion."