Three judges concluded that both the jury and the presiding judge were correct in finding a man guilty of raping his seven-year-old niece in 1998 and jailing him for 10 years.

The man, who cannot be named by court order, appealed after an all-male jury panel found him guilty, by six votes to three, of rape and by eight votes to one of defiling the girl.

It had emerged during the trial that the girl had first spoken about her ordeal when she was 13 years old.

She testified that she had first realised what had happened to her during personal and social development lessons in Form 2.

She said that her uncle had forced her to have sex with him four times and had committed lewd acts with her on one occasion in Ħal Far.

In his appeal, the man claimed that there were procedural errors that might have influenced the jurors who did not have enough evidence before them to find him guilty.

He also said that the 10-year jail term was excessive.

Mr Justice Raymond Pace, Mr Justice David Scicluna and Mr Justice Joseph Zammit Mckeon, sitting in the Criminal Court of Appeal, said that after reviewing the evidence in its entirety they concluded that the jurors had reasonably reached a verdict and that the punishment meted out was well within the parameters of the law.

They also threw out the allegations that procedural errors could have had an influence on the jury.