MELAKA: A mother and her daughter can now look forward to a joyful “Festa San Pedro” at the Portuguese Settlement here after they were discharged and acquitted by the High Court for drug trafficking.
Sharon Farnell, 52, and Theresa Kennedy, 26, cried tears of happiness and hugged their family members when Justice Mohd Radzi Abdul Hamid freed them yesterday.
The celebration to commemorate the Feast of St Peter, the patron saint of fishermen, will be held today.
Earlier, when reading out his judgment, the judge ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove a prima facie case against the duo.
The prosecution, said Justice Mohd Radzi, had failed to prove the utmost important point that others had no access to the shop where the drugs were purportedly discovered and seized on April 24, 2019, and the contradictions in the statements by eight prosecution witnesses during the trial.
Farnell and Kennedy were accused of trafficking 280.7g of cannabis at De Reggae Cafe and Craft in Jalan Laksamana here on April 24, 2019.
They were charged under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, which carries the mandatory death penalty or lifelong prison sentence or 15 strokes of the rotan upon conviction.
Their lawyer Haresh Mahadevan, when met outside the court, said the elated mother and daughter would look forward to celebrating the Feast of St Peter.
