Keeling’s mother Fiona MacKeown will challenge the verdict.
Two accused in the murder of 15-year-old British teenager Scarlett Keeling were acquitted by a Goa children’s court on Friday for lack of evidence, reported The Times of India.
Goa natives Samson D’Souza and Placido Carvalho were acquitted eight years after Keeler was raped and murdered on Anjuna beach in Goa. Judge Vandana Tendulkar had reserved its order till September 23 after concluding the trial last month.
Keeling’s mother Fiona MacKeown said she was devastated about the verdict. “I am reeling. It’s been eight years of agony. I feel devastated and will definitely be challenging the verdict,” MacKeown said reporters after the verdict was pronounced.
She alleged that the Indian judicial system has failed and the police were corrupt.
“We had been waiting all this time and it’s just rubbish. India’s whole judicial system has totally let me down,” she said.
“Right from the beginning, I knew that the local police did not want to prosecute the killers. It took a huge effort from me even to get the police to register a complaint. The criminal justice system protects the criminals and not the tourists,” added MacKeown.
Keeling was murdered while she was on a six-month family tour to India. She had returned to Goa alone to attend a Valentine’s Day beach party after moving to Gokarna beach in Karnataka along with her mother and mother’s boyfriend. The family had spent two months in Goa before moving to the adjacent state.
According to the prosecution, Samson D’Souza, and Placido Carvalho drugged Keeling, raped her, and murdered her drowning in the sea. She had suffered 50 injuries and traces of drugs such as cocaine, and LSD were found in her body.
The case, which was initially probed by the local police, was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after the investigation of the local police was found not satisfactory.
CBI arrested D’Souza and Carvalho and charged under IPC Sections 304 (II) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 354 (assault or use of criminal force on a woman with an intent to outrage her modesty) and 328 (administrating a stupefying drug with an intent to cause hurt) in March 2010 following the investigation.
But, the CBI’s efforts to bring Michael Mannion, who was the prime witness, from England to Goa failed as he declined to fly to India citing threats to his life.
1 Comment
What were they doing in India? I used to read the comment sections of Indian newspapers and were surprised at the rage against tourists and foreigners and missionaries. It didn’t sound like a good idea to visit if you weren’t ancestrally connected.