A "Grim Reaper" rapist who preyed on a 15-year-old girl yesterday lost an attempt to overturn his conviction.

Tewolde Selassie, 30, who raped the teenager after breaking into her bedroom, also lost his bid to reduce his 25-year sentence.

Selassie's repeated outbursts from the dock yesterday — at one point claiming the Court of Appeal was politically motivated against him — failed to find favour with the panel, which described his crime as one of the worst cases to come to court.

Despite overwhelming DNA evidence connecting him to the rape, defence solicitor Elizabeth Christopher yesterday said Selassie was sticking to his defence that: "It wasn't me."

In the morning, Ms Christopher failed to convince the panel that last May's trial was unfair because of a technicality concerning the way specimens had been labelled during the investigation.

In the afternoon, the panel rejected Ms Christopher's suggestion that Selassie should have received a lesser sentence than Police officer sex predator John White, who was jailed for 25 years in 2004 for sexually abusing young boys.

Selassie, an unemployed and unmarried Bermudian, was found guilty by a jury last May of burglary and serious sexual assault.

Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves, who sentenced Selassie, had described the offender as a predator with evil intent who stole into his victim's bedroom "like a Grim Reaper" and subjected her to her worst nightmare.

The victim had told how she was woken in the middle of the night in January 2005 by a man who had broken in through her window. He threw bedclothes over her face before pulling her to the floor and anally assaulting her.

She said the man threatened he had a knife and would kill her if she screamed, and put his hands over her mouth and nose to stop her fighting back, which made her believe she would die.

His parting remark before he escaped afterwards was to suggest the victim gets her window fixed.

Semen on a swab taken from the victim was found to match Selassie's DNA profile, with an expert from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police telling the jury there was a one-in-100 billion chance the DNA could be from someone else.

At yesterday's appeal against the conviction, Ms Christopher claimed it had not been strictly proved that the samples tested by Government analyst Christine Quigley were the same ones initially taken by a doctor.

Director of Public Prosecutions Rory Field said he was "somewhat at a loss" at the lawyer's suggestion, and that it was crystal clear that Ms Quigley had examined the correct samples.

After consulting with his panel for a few seconds, Mr. Justice Zacca upheld the conviction, saying he would release his reasons in writing at a later date.

At the appeal against the sentencing, Ms Christopher said: "We submit that this defendant should not receive as much as John White received."

She said White had multiple victims and abused a position of trust.

As Mr. Justice Zacca started pointing out how Selassie had threatened the young child, the offender took to his feet and called out: "Don't bother Ms Christopher ... you can't reason with them."

Ms Christopher repeatedly told Selassie to sit down, and Mr. Justice Zacca urged him to let his lawyer do her job.

Selassie continued: "I can tell when things are politically motivated."

Ms Christopher also said the victim had not been subjected to cross-examination during the trial — a point Mr. Justice Greaves had taken into account during sentencing.

Selassie interrupted Ms Christopher to apparently contradict her assertion that this decision had been made in the victim's interests, prompting panel member Sir Austin Ward to tell the solicitor: "Your client chose you; you didn't choose him."

Ms Christopher replied: "I have chosen to represent Mr. Selassie."

Upholding the 25-year sentence following another very brief discussion with his panel, Mr. Justice Zacca concluded: "We feel this is certainly one of the worst cases to come to the court — even worse than some of the cases we have been referring to."