Japanese prisoner loses appeal

Patrick Loughlin has always protested his innocence

The mother of a Wrexham man who has been jailed in Japan for manslaughter says she is disappointed that he has lost his appeal against sentence.

Patrick Loughlin, who is 32, was sentenced to four years' hard labour for manslaughter.

He was working in Kariya, Japan, when he was involved in a bar brawl in which a man died.

Kathleen Loughlin: Disappointed

However, he claims he was wrongly convicted, after his Japanese lawyer, who could not speak English, entered a guilty plea on his behalf.

Mr Loughlin's parents have been at the forefront of a campaign to win his freedom, and last month lobbied Foreign Office Minister Baroness Amos.

His mother Kathleen said the ruling by the Japanese Supreme Court on 1 October was a mixed blessing.

After two years spent in a remand centre, Mr Loughlin will now begin his actual prison sentence, which has been cut by fifteen months to two years nine months.

Mrs Loughlin said she was relieved her son was finally leaving the Nagoya Detention Centrecentre, where he alleged he was beaten by prison guards.

Mr Loughlin's lawyers - which include a new international team working free of charge - have lodged an objection to the decision, and it is hoped a new appeal will be heard within weeks.

A civil case against Mr Loughlin's original lawyer is also going ahead.

His family are also hopeful that they will win that case, and a re-trial will be ordered.

In August Mr Loughlin lost his original appeal aganst sentence.