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		</div><p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/murderer-loses-righttovote-appeal.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full" title="Peter Chester, who is serving life for raping and murdering his niece, has lost his appeal over the right to vote while in prison" src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/min-murderer-loses-righttovote-appeal.jpg" alt="Peter Chester, who is serving life for raping and murdering his niece, has lost his appeal over the right to vote while in prison"/></a></p>
<p>A man serving a life sentence for raping and murdering his niece has lost his appeal over the right to vote while in jail.</p>
<p>Peter Chester went to the Court of Appeal, where three judges unanimously dismissed his case and refused permission to go to the Supreme Court, the highest in the land.</p>
<p>Chester, 55, is serving life for raping and strangling seven-year-old Donna Marie Gillbanks in Blackpool in 1977.</p>
<p>The appeal court hearing last month came the day after the Government admitted it had no choice but to give &#8220;some prisoners&#8221; the vote because of a European court ruling that the blanket ban on serving prisoners going to the polls was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.</p>
<p>Chester&#8217;s lawyers argued at the Court of Appeal that the serious nature of his offence did not justify disenfranchising him and to do so was &#8220;disproportionate&#8221; and violated his human rights.</p>
<p>Chester, also known as Peter Chester Speakman, has served 33 years in jail.</p>
<p>The High Court rejected his claim over voting last year.</p>
<p>Lord Justice Laws, giving the appeal court ruling, said: &#8220;There are deep philosophical differences of view between reasonable people upon the question of prisoners&#8217; suffrage.&#8221;</p>
<p>He said Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke had stated that those who commit offences with aggravating features which lead to a jail sentence and who have previous criminal records forfeit their right to have a say in the way the country is governed for that period.</p>
<p>&#8220;Opponents of this view would say, with some force, that it is unconstitutional to regard disfranchisement as part of a criminal&#8217;s punishment.&#8221;</p>
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