Two beach shack workers who were accused of sexually assaulting and killing 15-year-old UK teenager Scarlett Keeling on a Goa beach in 2008 were acquitted by a trial court in Panaji on Friday.

Samson D'Souza and Placido Carvalho were acquitted by the Goa Children's Court president Vandana Tendulkar at the end of a trial which lasted for eight years.

The judge acquitted the accused, who were charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, due to lack of evidence, according to a report in The Times of India.

Scarlet’s mother Fiona MacKeown expressed shock at the verdict and said she will appeal against it.

They were accused of sexually assaulting Keeling and leaving her to die, with a cocktail of drugs pumped in her adolescent body, at North Goa's popular Anjuna beach.

The death of Keeling put the spotlight on the issue of safety of the state's beaches, which attracts nearly four million tourists every year.