A married man given a suspended sentence for a sex attack on a woman who had been celebrating leaving her job has failed in an Appeal Court bid to clear his name.

Dean Francis Howard, 41, of St Neots Road, Sandy, was given a six-month sentence, suspended for a year, after being convicted of assault by penetration at Luton Crown Court on June 12 last year.

The conviction related to an incident in 2006 involving a woman in her 30s who had spent the night drinking with friends in a nightclub in Stevenage following her last day at work.

Howard was acquitted by a jury of committing two other sex offences against the woman.

And he asked Lord Justice Hughes, sitting with Mr Justice Treacy and Sir Peter Cresswell at London's Criminal Appeal Court, to quash his conviction on the basis that the jury's verdicts were inconsistent.

Mr Justice Treacy, giving the judgment of the court refused however, saying there was no evidence to back up the assertion that the acquittals and the conviction were illogical, and refused him permission to appeal.