Scarlett Keeling case: Bombay HC convicts beach shack worker of rape, murder of teen
The Goa bench of the court acquitted another accused in the case, Plácido Carvalho.
The Goa bench of the Bombay High Court on Wednesday convicted Samson D’Souza, a beach shack worker, for the rape and murder of British teenager Scarlett Keeling in 2008, the Hindustan Times reported. It acquitted another accused in the case, Plácido Carvalho.
The High Court passed the verdict after hearing a Central Bureau of Investigation plea against the acquittal of the two men by a lower court. The CBI had said that Keeling was last seen with the two men. The court passed the judgement through video conferencing on Wednesday.
In 2016, a children’s court in Goa acquitted the two men of rape and culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The 15-year-old’s partially clothed body was found on Anjuna beach in February 2008. The teenager’s mother, Fiona MacKeown, had said she was disappointed with the verdict. She said they would appeal and “definitely move to the higher court” against the judgment.
Keeling was on a six-month-long family vacation when the incident took place. She hailed from Bideford in Devon, United Kingdom. Initially, the police put her death down to an accident. However, after her mother pushed for a second autopsy, they found that she had been drugged and raped. The case had made international news and sparked widespread debate on drugs and crime in India’s tourism industry.