Thiruvananthapuram: The district court today found a 25-year-old youth guilty of raping and killing a seven-year-old girl. Judge D. Papachan will pronounce the sentence on Thursday.

The police had accused the youth, Sebastian alias `Cheviathan,' of raping Salini, a local girl, in the bell tower of St. Thomas Church at Poonthura on December 25, 2001.

The girl was found strangulated and her gold earrings were seen missing. There were no eyewitnesses to the incident.

However, the police relied on scientific and circumstantial evidence to prosecute the accused. Salini's ornaments were recovered from a jewellery shop in Chalai. The prosecution made the shop owner a witness in the case. Forensic experts found traces of Sebastian's blood under the nails of the victim. Investigators also recovered the towel used for strangulating the girl.

The Sessions Court first tried the murder case in February 2003. The trial resulted in the acquittal of Sebastian for "want of evidence."

However, the Government moved the High Court against the verdict and the higher court ordered a re-trial. The prosecution team, led by Public Prosecutor A. Rajasenan and T.O. Hari Sankar, has argued for death sentence in the case.

Sebastian is also facing trial in a similar case registered in connection with the rape and murder of a two-year-old girl at Fishermen's colony in Pozhiyoor in August, 2005.

The case against Sebastian is that he had kidnapped the child, Saranya, from her mother's side by entering their ill-secured hutment at night.

The prosecution case is that Sebastian raped the girl nearly 100 m away from her house, stole her gold ornaments and then threw her into the nearby canal. K.P. Jyothindranath, Second Additional Sessions Judge, is trying the case.

The police have also accused Sebastian of raping and killing a one-year-old girl whose body was found abandoned under a railway overbridge near Thampanoor in 1999.

The girl, Karthika, belonged to family of migrants. She was kidnapped from her parents who were sleeping on the pavement near Valiasala. Currently, Sebastian is serving a two-year prison term for molesting a minor schoolgirl at Cheriyamuttom in 1998.

A police team led by Inspector General of Police Arun Kumar Sinha and Dy.SP (SBCID-Kollam) S. Firoz investigated the case that led to the retrial of Sebastian and his subsequent conviction.

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