Scarlett Keeling's mother seeks new investigation

Fiona MacKeown alleged that the investigative process was initially hindered by a reluctance in the Indian criminal justice system to admit a tourist had been murdered

The mother of British teenager Scarlett Keeling is battling for a reinvestigation into her daughter's killing in India in 2008.

Fiona MacKeown has written to Indian prime minister Narendra Modi after two men were cleared of raping and killing the 15-year-old in Goa.

A first post-mortem examination ruled that Scarlett had accidentally drowned.

But after a campaign by her family, a second post mortem revealed she had been drugged and raped.

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Traces of cocaine, ecstasy and LSD were found in her system.

Scarlett was on a six-month "trip of a lifetime" with her family when she died

Timeline

• November 2007: Scarlett and her family travel to India for a six-month 'trip of a lifetime'

• February 2008: Scarlett's body found on Anjuna beach in Goa. Police said she had accidentally drowned

• March 2008: A second post mortem is carried out which showed she had been raped and murdered

• March 2008: Samson D'Souza and Placido Carvalho are arrested and charged on five counts, before being bailed

• March 2010: Trial begins in Goa's Children's Court, but it is delayed due to adjournments. Fiona MacKeown calls it a "show trial"

• August 2010: Ms MacKeown gives evidence at the trial and says her daughter's alleged killers "gave her drugs"

• February 2011: Prosecutor SR Rivonkar resigns from the case

• April 2012: The Goan authorities give permission for Scarlett's body to be released to her family

• June 2012: Scarlett is buried in a garden on the family's smallholding

• September 2016: Samson D'Souza and Placido Carvalho are cleared of raping and killing Scarlett

Scarlett, from Bideford in Devon, suffered 50 separate injuries in the attack, the court in India was told.

Ms MacKeown told ITV 1's Good Morning Britain: "I'd like a reinvestigation, I'd like the police investigated that lied to me and told the other younger policeman to treat it as an accident and not a murder.

"I'd like the ministers who delayed the handing over to the CBI (the Central Bureau of Investigation, India's elite national police agency) investigated and then maybe we might get to the bottom of it.

"That's my biggest wish, a new investigation."

Scarlett had been in the country on a family holiday at the time of her killing, but attended a Valentine's Day beach party while the rest of her relatives went travelling.

Ms MacKeown alleged that the investigative process was initially hindered by a reluctance in the Indian criminal justice system to admit a tourist had been murdered.

She also spoke of how she would "regret for the rest of my life" the decision to allow her daughter to go to the beach party alone.