India police ‘failed to seal off the field Danielle was found in’
A LAWYER representing murdered backpacker Danielle McLaughlin’s family yesterday questioned whether Indian police had done enough to seal off the scene of the crime to gather forensic evidence.
He spoke out as friends of the 28-year-old, who had dual British-Irish citizenship, told how they watched dozens of people trample over the spot beside a beach in Goa where her body was found stripped and battered on Tuesday morning.
The family of British teenager Scarlett Keeling has previously hit out at authorities, saying they bungled the case after she was killed while visiting Goa.
Meanwhile tourists who were with the ‘vibrant, adventurous’ Donegal woman hours before her death told how she was with a group of Indian men who had tried to grope foreign women, saying her alleged killer, Vikat Bhagat, had ‘glared’ at them.
Police who arrested Bhagat say he told them he ‘felt an urge to have sex with’ Danielle, and that he struck her with a beer bottle when she struggled.
Saskia Gall, one of those asked to identify Ms McLaughlin’s body, said: ‘We went out to the field and there were 30 or more men standing next to the body, taking photos and watching.’
The family have hired wellknown Indian lawyer, Vikram Varma, who worked with Scarlett Keeling’s mother Fiona MacKeown in a bid to prove the British teenager had been murdered.
The Indian authorities initially dismissed the 15-year-old’s death as accidental drowning and it was only after pressure from her mother that a second postmortem found more than 50 cuts and
‘30 or more men beside her body’
bruises plus evidence she had been sexually assaulted. Two Indian men were cleared of Scarlett’s murder last year.
Yesterday Mr Varma said: ‘The quality of the evidence collection system is far inferior here than in the UK or elsewhere. If the police are confident that they have the confession of the accused and they have sufficient evidence then they may not have not taken everything into consideration. I must add here that a confession of the accused is not enough because it is not admissible in court.’
Friends have also expressed concern that police brought them into the same room as 23-year-old Bhagat in order to identify him.
A postmortem found that Ms McLaughlin was raped and strangled. Bhagat, a petty thief, has been remanded in custody accused of her murder. She was last seen dancing at a Holi festival celebration on Monday evening.
Other partygoers told how the group of Indian men including Bhagat were ‘glued’ to Ms McLaughlin. One partygoer said: ‘One of these guys smiled at me and then came up and groped my breast.’ Another holidaymaker said Bhagat ‘sat there glaring’ as others socialised.
Police have denied mishandling the case. Deputy Superintendent Sammy Tavares said officers ‘always sanitise the area of crime’, though he admitted that ‘in this case, it might have taken a couple of hours for the [forensics] team to turn up’.
He said he was unaware of witnesses being brought face-toface with Bhagat.