A BUSINESSMAN from Chester who was convicted of raping a nine-year-old boy won his appeal and walked free yesterday.

A High Court Judge quashed the conviction of Richard Watson, the joint owner of Sartori Menswear in the Grosvenor Shopping Centre.

Speaking on his release after spending three months in Altcourse Prison, Mr Watson, said: 'I am grateful to my many friends for their constant support. The last few months have been a terrible ordeal which has concluded today by the quashing of the conviction.

'I look forward to returning home, and to work, and thanking, in person, those who have stood by me.'

Mr Watson was last night said to be celebrating with his family, friends and girlfriend.

In July, Mr Watson, 42, of Wycliffe Court, Chester, was sentenced to eight years in prison following a nine-day trial at Chester Crown Court.

Mr Watson and his co-defendant and former employee, Richard Partridge, then 24, of Denbigh Street, Chester, were both cleared of raping a schoolboy in a hotel room on October 2001, following a trip to Alton Towers.

But the jury decided Mr Watson was guilty of raping the same boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on a separate occasion between June 1 and October 22, 2001.

Mr Watson's legal team immediately launched an appeal, but Judge Elgan Edwards refused an application to bail him until the hearing at London's High Court this week.

Peter Rouch QC, defending, argued the boy may have fallen prey to 'false memory syndrome' - so that he wrongly became convinced that he had been raped after the memory was suggested by someone else.

Lord Justice Judge - sitting with Mr Justice Silber and Mrs Justice Cox - ruled the conviction was 'unsafe' and that Mr Watson should be 'discharged'.

Mr Watson's solicitor, Andrew Shaw, of Chester firm Walker Smith and Way, added: 'The court found that the jury's verdicts were insupportable.

'Mr Watson was cleared on the count for which the prosecution provided supporting evidence, yet he was convicted on the charge where there was none.

'The verdicts were inconsistent.'