Panaji, Jul 17 (IANS): Partially overturning a 2016 trial court order, the Bombay High Court in Goa on Wednesday convicted Samson D'Souza and acquitted Placido Carvalho in connection with a case involving the sexual assault and death of 15-year-old British teenager Scarlett Keeling at Anjuna beach in 2008.
Speaking to reporters after the pronouncement of the order, Ejaz Khan, counsel for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), said: "Samson has been convicted, Carvalho is acquitted. The matter would be heard on Friday for quantum of punishment."
The CBI had challenged the acquittal of the two beach-shack workers, Samson D'Souza and Placido Carvalho, who were accused of sexually assaulting 15-year-old Scarlett Keeling and leaving her to die on Anjuna beach in 2008.
D'Souza and Carvalho had been charged under Indian Penal Code sections 304 (II) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 354 (assault or use of criminal force on a woman with an intent to outrage her modesty) and 328 (administering stupefying drug with an intent to cause hurt).
Vikram Varma, lawyer of Scarlett's mother Fiona Mackeown who was present during the hearing, said that justice had been done especially with the court ordering the conviction of Samson, after finding him guilty on all listed counts.
"They took off her (Scarlett's) clothes, assaulted her sexually and killed her. That conduct brings them under the purview of the Goa Children's Act. And accused number one Samson D'Souza was found guilty on all counts. This is based on the same evidence which has been gathered on trial over ten years," Varma said, adding that the court acquitted Carvalho because of lack of evidence.
The dragging on of the trial in the two courts and the earlier acquittals had weighed heavy on Mackeown's heart, Varma said.
The sexual assault and death of Scarlett, subsequent attempts by the police to cover-up the suspicious death, Fiona Mackeown's fight for justice had made the case one of the most reported crime stories in the coastal state over the last decade and more.