Court orders new trial in Virk killing

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- A British Columbia appeals court Friday ordered a fourth trial of Kelly Ellard for her alleged role in the November 1997 killing of 14-year-old Reena Virk.

The Court of Appeal in Vancouver overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial, due in part to inconsistent testimony and to errors in instructions to the jury, the court said in a 60-page decision.

One of the three judges on the panel dissented.

Government prosecutors said they would review the ruling and decide how to proceed.

Virk, a Jehovah's Witness immigrant from India who lived on Vancouver Island, was beaten by six teenage girls and one boy, and then beaten a second time before being dragged and drowned in the Gorge Waterway in Saanich, near Victoria, on Nov. 14, 1997.

Ellard, 15 years old at the time of the killing, has always proclaimed her innocence.

Her 2000 conviction of second-degree murder was overturned on appeal. Her second trial, in 2004, ended in a hung jury and mistrial. She was convicted in a third trial in 2005.

Virk's father, Manjit Virk, said he was prepared to go to court "one last time," Canwest News Service reported.