A serial rapist has been refused leave to appeal to the Privy Council against his conviction and 18-year sentence.

Former removals firm boss William Henry Kelly was branded a ’cruel, predatory and persistent’ rapist when he was jailed last year.

He must serve a minimum of 12 years behind bars after being found guilty by a jury of 10 charges of rape, four of indecent assault and two of causing actual bodily harm.

Kelly, 46, from Peel, appealed against both his conviction and sentence.

In his appeal, he made wide-ranging complaints against the conduct of the trial by his defence advocate and claimed that trial judge Deemster Peter Birkett’s summing up was unfair.

Judge of Appeal Geoffrey Tattersall QC and First Deemster David Doyle dismissed Kelly’s appeal following a hearing that took place over six days in September.

The appeal court ruled that Kelly’s criticisms of his defence advocate were not sufficient reasons to uphold the appeal and that his criticisms made against Deemster Birkett were without merit.

The following month, he applied for leave to appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

But the appeal court dismissed that too, with new Judge of Appeal Jeremy Storey QC and Deemster Doyle concluding there was nothing that persuaded them that there had been a serious risk that a serious miscarriage of justice had occurred in the case. Moreover, they ruled that no point of law of exceptional public importance had been identified. The two judgments were embargoed and have only just been published on the Courts of Justice website.

Kelly’s offences were aggravated by being committed over a number of years (between 2013 and 2016) on women he knew to be vulnerable.

One of the victims had only just left hospital and he had claimed he was going to look after her. Instead he raped her twice without remorse or compassion.

Another victim had broken up with her husband and was trying to start afresh in the Isle of Man.

But Kelly targeted her and raped her twice.

In the case of the third victim, Deemster Birkett said Kelly had controlled and dominated her for nearly two years, indecently assaulting her, raping her on six occasions, and using violence against her.

He told him: ’You are a large and powerful man. They could not stop you. It took courage for each to come forward and to publicly relive these terrible events.’