The mother of 15-year-old Scarlett Keeling has welcomed the sentencing of a man to 10 years rigorous labour, after her family’s decade-long fight for justice.

Speaking from Devon, Fiona MacKeown said she hoped her family could move on with their lives. Scarlett was found dead on a beach in Goa in 2008, after a Valentine’s Day beach party.

“It has just always been there in our lives, for years and years, it seems like forever. The fact that it will be gone now is taking a bit of time to sink in really.”

“Rigorous imprisonment” is defined in the Indian penal code as jail plus hard labour, but the form of work is not specified.



At a hearing on Wednesday, the high court in Goa overturned a previous ruling, convicting Samson D’Souza of culpable homicide, criminal assault and outraging a woman’s modesty, providing narcotics to a person with knowledge that it could cause serious harm or death, and destruction of evidence.

He was also convicted under the Goa children’s code for not providing a safe environment for a child, according to MacKeown’s lawyer, Vikram Varma. A second man, Placido Carvalho, accused of abetting a crime, had his acquittal upheld.

Samson D’Souza. Photograph: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images

D’Souza’s sentencing follows an 11-year battle for justice led by Scarlett’s mother, who said police made no effort to investigate what had happened, neglecting basic evidence and ignoring her inquires.

Scarlett’s bruised and half-naked body was found on the popular Anjuna beach in the north of Goa.

“They tried to make out it was an accident, they told me that she was wearing swimwear that she’d gone for a swim, which was not true,” said MacKeown.

After visiting the beach the day after Scarlett’s death, she discovered the police had failed to collect crucial evidence, including her daughter’s underwear and sandals.

MacKeown went from police station to police station on a moped, demanding that the case be treated as a murder investigation, and insisted on a second autopsy.

A later postmortem showed there was ecstasy, cocaine and LSD in the teenager’s body. It also revealed 50 cuts and bruises and evidence of sexual assault. It was alleged that D’Souza plied her with drugs, raped her and left her unconscious face down on the beach.

The case was hampered by constant setbacks, including a change of prosecutor, long delays in India’s courts and the failure of a British witness to give evidence.

Scarlett’s mother, Fiona MacKeown. Photograph: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images

“There was a lack of communication, a lack of response from the authorities in India,” MacKeown said. In 2016, the case went before a special court for trial of crimes against children.

The case suffered a major blow when Michael Mannion, a British witness, did not attend. He had told police he had last seen Scarlett hours before, lying in the car park of nearby Lui’s Bar, with D’Souza, a local bartender, lying on top of her.

“In the children’s court it was packed all day every day,” said MacKeown. “They were hearing all these cases, rammed in together - some for child rape, some for theft, all being dealt with in the same space. We were just a little slot in there really.”

“It was horrible,” she added. “He [D’Souza] just stood there looking at me. He was an arrogant young man.”

D’Souza was acquitted on charges of rape and culpable homicide at Goa children’s court. “It was over in a second, I didn’t even hear,” said MacKeown. “When I look at the pictures of myself coming out of court, I look like I’d been slapped.”

The trial, added Varma, was fraught with problems. “Facts were convoluted, there were six judges who were changed during the trial,” said Varma. “When I went through the trial court judgment, I found that facts had been turned to fiction and fiction was stated as facts.”

The acquittal was challenged by India’s Central Bureau of Investigation, and was eventually overturned by the high court of Goa on Wednesday.

MacKeown believes the high court scrutinised the evidence far more closely and the CBI did a far better job at proving their case. “The evidence has to have been there for the judge to have done what they did,” she said.



MacKeown said she hoped the verdict would give hope to other families fighting for justice in Goa. “It’s not just me who has had someone murdered over there,” she said.

Scarlett’s death attracted close media attention. MacKeown has faced scrutiny, including questions over her decision to allow her daughter to travel alone to Anjuna while the family toured further along the coast. She has had to endure coverage of her daughter’s drug use and sex life.

Scarlett’s death also became the subject of a Bollywood film, which was made without her mother’s consultation.

MacKeown had hoped to fly to India for the sentencing, but was unable to travel in time. She has made countless trips to Goa over the past decade, resulting in substantial debt. “I’m working it out, I’m sorting it out. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.

The past few days, following his sentencing, have been surreal, said MacKeown. “I’ve had to carry on working and stuff. I didn’t think we’d ever get to this stage ever, really, at all.”