Wellington, March 16 NZPA - A former national fishing champion found guilty last year of raping a comatose drunk neighbour today appealed his conviction, claiming one of the jurors knew the woman's family.

Dylan George Tuhura, was jailed for 10 years when he appeared in Palmerston North District Court in February last year.

A jury found him guilty of raping and sodomising the neighbour in her Palmerston North home in October 2007, after she passed out through drinking and was put to bed by her flatmates.

The woman only realised what had happened when she woke up several hours after the attack, finding herself naked from the waist down.

Tuhura maintained the sex was consensual after initially denying having any knowledge of the incident.

He appealed his conviction in the Court of Appeal today on the grounds that a juror at his trial was a work colleague of the neighbour's family and that he had previously had drinks with another juror.

The judges reserved their decision.