Police allege D’Souza and Carvalho plied Keeling with a cocktail of drink and illegal drugs, including cocaine, before sexually assaulting her and leaving her to die by dumping her unconscious in shallow water where she drowned.
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Goa: More than eight years after the 15-year-old British teenager Scarlett Keeling’s body was found on Goa’s Anjuna beach in the morning hours, the trial court is set to deliver its verdict in the case today.
Fiona MacKeown, mother of murdered British schoolgirl Scarlett Keeling, looks through court documents at her lawyer Vikram Varma’s office in Panaji on September 22, 2016.
The trial began in 2010 but has been dogged by numerous delays, including hearings of just one afternoon a month due to a backlog of cases and a public prosecutor withdrawing from proceedings.
Scarlett’s death had thrown the spotlight on Goa’s drug underbelly, with her mother also accusing the local police of trying to cover up the case, claiming there was a drugs mafia at work.
“It’s been awful. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone”. They have pleaded not guilty. In that time her daughter’s death has become a sensation in the local and global media, and inspired a Bollywood film.
Ms MacKeown admitted she was “very naive” and “the decision I made to let her go back to Anjuna will be a decision I regret for the rest of my life”.
“I can’t close the door on losing a child. For a long time I still laid her a plate at the dinner table”, she said. You get used to not seeing them every day.
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Health campaigners are warning of massive cuts and the possible closure of community hospitals and minor injury units in Cornwall following the publishing of a new 5 year health plan for the county.
