Two men have been acquitted of the rape and murder of British schoolgirl Scarlett Keeling in India.

crime reporter(wp/es):

Two men have been acquitted of the rape and murder of British schoolgirl Scarlett Keeling in India.

The 15-year-old’s bruised and half-naked body was found on Anjuna beach in the north of Goa in 2008.

The teenager had been at a Valentine's Day beach party while the rest of her family had gone travelling.

A post-mortem examination showed there was ecstasy, cocaine and LSD in her body when she died.

Following a police investigation two local men, Samson D'Souza and Placido Carvalho, were charged with causing her death. 

It was believed they had plied her with drugs, raped her and left her unconscious on the beach where she subsequently drowned.

Both denied charges of culpable homicide and grievous sexual assault and were today acquitted by a judge in India.

Scarlett, from Bideford in north Devon, suffered 50 separate injuries in the attack, Goa's Children's Court has previously heard.

The teenager's mother, Fiona MacKeown, travelled to India for the verdict.

She said following the verdict: “I've waited 8 years and now this.

"I am disappointed with the verdict and I will definitely move to the higher court."

Samson D'Souza reportedly said: “Justice has prevailed.”

Ms MacKeown described her daughter as "just a normal teenage girl" and said she would always “regret” allowing her to go to the beach party.

She told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme: "She wanted to be more grown up than she was. 

“Mostly people don't know the facts when they say I left her on the beach on her own or with her 29-year-old boyfriend. He wasn't her boyfriend and I didn't leave her on her own. They don't know the facts and I try not to take what they say personally. 

"Obviously I will regret that decision for the rest of my life that I let her go to that party. I wish more than anything that I'd said no and kept her with us but I can't change the past. I just have to accept it and get on."

The bereaved mother described her daughter as “happy and lively”.

She said: "She played saxophone and she was going to join a band. She used to ride the horses a lot - we had horses and she loved that. She used to swim - all of us used to get into the sea in Cornwall and swim. She was active and strong and healthy."