8 years after rape, murder of UK teen Scarlett Keeling, both accused let off

Panaji: Goa children’s court on Friday acquitted two men accused of the rape and murder of 15-year-old British schoolgirl Scarlett Keeling, whose bruised and semi-nude body was found on a Goa beach in 2008.

Friends and relatives of the two accused, Samson D'Souza and Placido Carvalho, cheered as the verdict was read out.

But Scarlett's mother Fiona MacKeown said she was devastated by the outcome and promised to fight to overturn the verdict. "I am reeling. It's been eight years of agony. I feel devastated and will definitely be challenging the verdict," she told reporters outside the court.

"We had been waiting all this time and it's just rubbish. India's whole judicial system has totally let me down," she added.

"Somebody murdered my daughter in this country and somebody must be held accountable."

D'Souza and Carvalho had been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, using force with intent to outrage a woman's modesty and of administering drugs with intent to harm.

But they both broke into smiles as Judge Vandana Tendulkar told the packed courtroom: "I find them not guilty of all charges."

Scarlett's body was found on Anjuna beach in north Goa. The teenager's death in 2008 became international news, shining a spotlight on the seedy side of the resort destination.

Police initially dismissed her death as an accidental drowning but opened a murder investigation after MacKeown pushed for a second autopsy which proved she had been drugged and raped. It showed that Keeling had suffered more than 50 injuries to her body.

The trial began in 2010 but was 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.

A key witness, Briton Michael Mannion, known as "Masala Mike", also refused to testify, dealing a huge blow to the prosecution's case. He had initially spoken of seeing D'Souza lying on top of Keeling on the beach shortly before she died.

MacKeown and her family were on a six-month holiday to India when she, Keeling and her other daughters went on an excursion to Karnataka, but Keeling later returned alone to attend a party. Her body was found on the morning of February 18, 2008.

Police alleged that 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.

They denied all the charges, claiming that the teenager died an accidental death after taking drugs of her own volition.