DON'S DRUG CASE DAUGHTER TO BE FREED FROM GOA JAIL

THE daughter of an Oxford don is to be freed from a 10-year jail sentence on
drug charges in Goa after a lengthy campaign by her family to prove her
innocence.

Alexia Stewart, 29, and her boyfriend, Gary Carter, 30, were jailed 18
months ago after police claimed to have found a bag containing cannabis
worth pounds 200 at their rented home. The couple always maintained that the
officers had planted the bag on them and demanded a pounds 2,000 bribe. When
no money was paid, the pair were arrested.

Miss Stewart's father, Peter, the director of human sciences at St Anne's
College, Oxford, headed the efforts to free the couple and he was in the
court at Panaji, the Goan capital, to hear an appeal judge rule the
convictions should not stand. His wife, Lucile, said from her home in
Oxford: "I had a short telephone call from Peter to say what had happened.
To say we are ecstatic is to use too weak a word, we are all overwhelmed."

Mr Stewart had hoped that his daughter and Mr Carter would be free last
night but a mistake in the paperwork meant their release was delayed. He
said: "I have seen Alexia twice. She is very, very pleased at the outcome
and I cannot wait to get her back to Britain."

Mr Stewart did not expect there to be an appeal from the prosecution. He
said: "The investigation was conducted in a very negligent manner and I
think they would be very foolish to appeal."

The couple may have to wait for new exit visas and Mrs Stewart said Alexia
would be taking a holiday before flying home. She said: "She is very thin
and very white and will need time to gather her strength before coming home."

The family of Mr Carter, from Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, were also in
Goa for the appeal court ruling. Mr Stewart travelled to Goa five times in
efforts to free his daughter and Mr Carter after their arrest in March last
year.