The Court of Appeal has dismissed a man’s attempt to have his conviction for the violent rape of his wife overturned.

The man, who cannot be named to protect the woman's identity, is serving a five year prison sentence for beating and raping her at their home in a rural midlands town.

The man was convicted in October 2016 after a three-week long trial, during which the jurors heard of an argument he had with his wife the year before.

He went to bed early after becoming upset when she told him “begging wasn’t attractive” after he asked her to kiss him and give him affection.

When she tried to comfort him later that night, he got on top of her, punched her five or six times in the face and raped her.

The court heard he told her to beg for mercy and said: “That’ll teach you not to disrespect me”.

As part of his appeal, his lawyers claimed the judge shouldn’t have allowed the case go to the jury due to insufficient evidence.

They also accused the judge of not adequately directing the jurors in relation to certain issues, particularly the issue of recklessness.

But the Court of Appeal disagreed and said the jurors would have been fully aware of the issues and would have been in a position to deal with them.