FREED DRUG-CASE BRITON ATTACKS 'CORRUPT' INDIA

ALEXIA STEWART, one of two Britons freed after 19 months in an Indian
jail on drugs charges, spoke yesterday of how she shared a 25ft by
15ft cell with 15 other women, including convicted murderers.

At one end was a cage, where the most violent prisoners were confined.
At the other was a shared lavatory - a hole in the ground. Thin and
pale, Miss Stewart, 29, the daughter of an Oxford don, said she spent
20 out of every 24 hours in the dimly lit cell, keeping herself
occupied by reading and doing embroidery. In the daily "fresh-air
period", spent in a hot courtyard, she made brooms out of palm leaves
and cleaned rice.

She said: "Sometimes I tried jogging round the cell, but the other
inmates would laugh and chase me. I would not feel safe coming to
India again. I wouldn't feel comfortable. I've seen how people at
every level are corrupt - in jail, the police, the
government."

Miss Stewart - who, with her boyfriend Gary Carter, 30, was jailed for
10 years in Goa on drugs charges - was released on Wednesday. They
were cleared of all charges by Goa's high court on appeal on Tuesday,
but because of a legal technicality Mr Carter's release was delayed a
day until yesterday.

He was met by his parents and his sister as he left the Aguada jail in
Panaji, Goa's capital. Miss Stewart and her father were also there to
greet him in an emotional reunion. Mr Carter's sister Tania, 34, said
last night: "We're thrilled. It's the happiest day of my life.
Mentally, Gary's fine, but he's very thin. We've been very grateful
for the support back home. We're just a small family from Milton Keynes."

Miss Stewart, a graduate in Japanese from Stirling University, enjoyed
her first day of freedom with her father, the director of human
sciences at St Anne's College, Oxford. The couple were arrested in
March 1998 after Goa's drug squad officers said they had found 165
grams (5.8oz) of cannabis in the garden of their rented cottage in the
village of Vagator, where Miss Stewart was running a beachside shop.
Mr Carter was in the process of setting up an internet cafe.

The pair said the cannabis had been planted by the officers, who had
demanded a pounds 2,000 bribe. The appeal court believed them, citing
discrepancies in the prosecution's case. The ruling said: "The bench
found it difficult to believe that the contraband was recovered from
their possession." After a six-month trial last year, they were found
guilty and sentenced to 10 years "rigorous imprisonment". The judge
accused drug tourists of "destroying the youth of Goa".

Part of the problem, it seems, was that the couple had given false
names upon arrest. Miss Stewart called herself Lucy Sky, in what she
thought was a jokey reference to the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with
Diamonds. Mr Carter called himself Larry Sky. The court suspected them
of duplicity. Mr Carter declined to talk to reporters last night. His
father is head of information technology for the Institute of
Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.