Scarlett murder: Mother investigated?
- 00:01:23
- ITN
Scarlett murder: Mother investigated?
The mother of a 15-year-old British girl murdered in Goa has said she is aware of a report that she will be investigated for negligence.Indian police initially believed Scarlett Keeling had accidentally drowned on February 18 but later launched a murder investigation after pressure from her mother, Fiona MacKeown, 43, who was convinced of foul play.A second post-mortem examination showed the teenager, from Bideford, Devon, did not have enough water in her lungs to have drowned and had 50 marks on her body.Authorities are continuing to question Samson D'Souza, 28, over her rape and murder following a court appearance on Monday. No charges have been brought against him and he was remanded in police custody for 14 days.D'Souza was detained after witnesses alleged they saw him rape Scarlett and Goa police inspector Kisham Kumar said after the hearing that police were satisfied he had been involved.According to some reports, Scarlett had taken drugs and was seen drinking in a bar in the resort of Anjuna on the night she died. She was reportedly in the company of three men - D'Souza, a Briton known locally as Masala Mike, who was D'Souza's flatmate, and a third male, Placido Carvalho.Scarlett had been left in Anjuna with her 25-year-old tour guide boyfriend Julio Lobo while Ms MacKeown, her partner and the family's six other children travelled in the nearby state of Karnataka.However, Ms MacKeown has since questioned whether police have got the correct suspect in custody. She managed to find her daughter's clothing on the beach and also took witness statements in an attempt to find out what happened.She said: "I am not confident that they have got the right person, I think that they are just making a public show, to be honest. We have had many reports that they have done this before with other cases for a start-off."I just think they are going to continue to try to cover themselves up - their mistakes."She said a letter has been sent to the Chief Minister of Goa explaining that the family is unhappy with how the case is being dealt with and wants the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India's investigation agency, to come in and take over.She added: "Only then will I be satisfied that somebody from outside the area is dealing with this case and I would want them to deal with the police as well, not just the people that have done this to Scarlett."The police really need dealing with as well because this is an ongoing thing, it has happened before many times and if they had dealt with it in the past, Scarlett may still be alive today."Goa is extremely popular with Western tourists but in the last few years there have been problems with tourists dying from drug overdoses and women especially being attacked and sexually assaulted.According to the Times Of India, 126 foreigners have died in Goa over the last two years and in January this year a 30-year-old British woman was raped.© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.
ITN | March 11, 2008
