The man convicted of raping and murdering a 15-year-old British schoolgirl at an Indian beach resort has today been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Scarlett Keeling’s bruised and half-naked body was found on the shores of Anjuna beach in Goa in February 2008.
Earlier this week Samson D’Souza, 36, was found guilty of five charges at Bombay’s High Court.
And on Friday Scarlett’s killer was sentenced to serve just 10 years in jail for her murder.
Samson D’Souza (pictured leaving court after he was acquitted in 2016) has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for the murder of 15-year-old Scarlett Keeling (left)
Scarlett suffered 50 injuries during her assault and was found partially clothed on Anjuna beach while on the ‘holiday of a lifetime’ with her family in February 2008
The prosecution had been hoping to secure a life sentence for D’Souza, but the defence argued that because he is the lone earning member of his family, and the father of a 12-year-old girl, his term should be reduced.
‘Ten years is an appropriate punishment for anyone indulging in child abuse of this gravity,’ Vikram Varma, a lawyer for MacKeown, said.
Special prosecutor Eijaz Khan sought the maximum term and opposed any leniency, arguing that D’Souza should have protected the minor girl.
‘Instead they gave her drugs and liquor and finally left her to die on the beach, without informing anyone,’ said the prosecutor.
Khan also sought compensation for Keeling’s mother for the ‘severe hardship and pain caused to her in a foreign land’.
Fiona MacKeown has been fighting for justice since her daughter Scarlett was killed.
Two local men were charged with her rape and murder but acquitted in 2016.
After Ms MacKeown, 55, urged the authorities to appeal and the case was sent to a higher court, beach shack worker D’Souza, 36, was convicted of sexually assaulting the girl, and of ‘culpable homicide not amounting to murder’.
Her mother, Fiona MacKeown, had to campaign for a second post-mortem to be done on her daughter – which revealed she had been drugged and raped
Ms MacKeown said after the conviction this week: ‘I’m actually still reeling. I can’t quite believe that it’s going to be over.
‘It’s happening. It’s taking it’s time to sink in that this is finally going to be over.
‘Our lives have been on hold, well for me anyway. It’s different for the children. They’ve been getting on with their lives by growing up. But it’s been traumatic.
‘Whenever I go to India they’re always worried about what will happen to me.
‘We are definitely going to be celebrating tonight with a bottle of bubbly.’
D’Souza, who initially confessed to the charges of rape and murder but later claimed police tortured him into it, was charged alongside Placido Carvalho, 47, who was acquitted today.
Both were taken to trial in 2016 and both acquitted, sparking an appeal from the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Scarlett’s drowned and battered body, which had undergone 50 injuries during her assault, was found partially clothed on Anjuna beach while she was on the ‘holiday of a lifetime’ with her family in February 2008.
Scarlett’s mother Fiona has spent 11 years fighting for her justice, from the moment police claimed her death was an accident in 2008.
Ms MacKeown had to wait four years until she could bury her daughter because persistent delays in the trial wouldn’t allow for her body to be returned home to Bideford in Devon
She believed that the police tried to cover up her daughter’s death.
Scarlett’s family were on holiday and had spent two months at a seaside resort in Goa before moving further down the coast to Karnataka.
Her mother let her return to Goa for a Valentine’s Day party in the care of family friend Julio Lobo, 25.
But it was while she was staying with Mr Lobo that she went out with a female friend one evening and never returned.
As soon as Ms MacKeown found out her daughter was dead she called the police, but found them to be of no help.
It was up to Ms MacKeown to find her daughter’s knickers, shorts and broken sandals strewn across the beach she was found washed up on, after police had supposedly scoured the area for evidence.
In an interview with the Guardian in 2009 she said: ‘I knew they were hers straight away. I recognised her underwear. I recognised her sandals with the imprints of her feet in them.
‘One of them was broken so I knew there had been some kind of struggle. The shock. I remember that it made my fingertips tingle.’
Placido Carvalho (left, leaving court in 2016) was also charged with Scarlett’s rape and murder but was acquitted
It was also up to Ms MacKeown to push for a second post mortem on her daughter’s body, after police claimed it was unmarked at first.
After the second autopsy, police reported that Scarlett had ecstasy, cocaine and LSD in her system and that she had been raped before she drowned.
When Ms MacKeown went to identify Scarlett’s body she noticed it was covered in bruises.
She says that when she asked a police officer about a bruise on Scarlett’s head, she was told it had happened after her death when she hit her head on some sand while floating in the sea.
Ms MacKeown took pictures of her daughter’s body so she had proof of the marks.
The original investigating officer of the case was suspended after allegations were made that police were covering up Scarlett’s death.
The same officer had been suspended in 2005 when he allegedly tried to categorise a murder as suicide.
Ms MacKeown also believes that police didn’t collect crucial evidence from the scene and allowed other vital evidence to be tampered with or destroyed – Curlies beach shack where D’Souza worked was taken down after Scarlett’s death.
Not only did Ms MacKeown have to struggle against the police, she was also summoned to court in India under charges of child neglect, which were dropped, because she had let Scarlett attend the Valentine’s Day party.
D’Souza found guilty of sexual assault, child abuse, destruction of evidence and of providing narcotics to Scarlett, according to the India Times.
Both he and Carvalho were previously acquitted in 2016 but the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) appealed the verdict.
In court the prosecution claimed that the two men had been working at a shack on the beach and had plied Scarlett with drugs before raping her.
Ms MacKeown had to wait four years until she could bury her daughter because persistent delays in the trial wouldn’t allow for her body to be returned home to Bideford in Devon.
Earlier this year, when it looked as though whoever was responsible for Scarlett’s death would walk free, Ms MacKeown said: ‘The whole thing has been made a mockery of from start to finish.
‘I feel like they hope we just go away after 11 years. If it ends tomorrow then Scarlett will have been failed.
Fiona Mackeown and her lawyer Vikram Verma speak with media as they leave a local police station near Anjuna beach in 2008
D’Souza initially confessed to the charges of rape and murder that had been put against him, but later claimed that he was tortured into it by police
‘I fear it will never be solved but I’ll never stop hoping. I can’t bare thinking her killers may never be found. Her killers are still walking the streets.
‘I just want it all to be over now and for someone to be held accountable. We want to get on with our lives.
‘It has dominated our lives but we have all tried to move on. I’ll be devastated if that’s it after tomorrow.’
She added: ‘All we want is to get justice but I don’t know what else we can do. Scarlett’s name is being dragged through the mud.
‘The CBI aren’t taking this seriously. This is a massive part of our lives and we just want justice for what has happened to her. We all miss her everyday.
‘Scarlett deserves more than this. If it is dropped then Scarlett will have been failed.’
Fiona added she doesn’t know ‘where else to turn’ in her quest for justice if the High Court does choose to end proceedings this week but she’ll ‘never give up hope’.
‘Goa is a popular tourist place and is dangerous,’ she said.
‘Those people who did it are dangerous.’