WE’LL GET JUSTICE FOR DANIELLE
Mum’s heartache at violent death of daughter in india
THE heartbroken mum of an Irish woman raped and murdered in India has vowed to fight for justice.
Danielle Mcloughlin, 28, was found dead on a beach in Goa last year and her alleged killer is on trial this week.
Mum Andrea Brannigan, from Buncrana in Co Donegal, said: “No matter what I will never let Danielle’s voice be silenced.”
A HEARTBROKEN mum has said she wants her daughter’s killer to tell her why they did it.
Backpacker Danielle Mcloughlin was brutally raped and murdered in India last year.
The 28-year-old’s family have opened up about their devastation as they prepare for the trial to begin on Friday.
Danielle’s badly beaten body was found naked in a pool of blood by a farmer near Deobag Beach in Goa last March. She had extensive injuries to her face and head.
Mum Andrea Brannigan, from Buncrana in Co Donegal, said: “I would love whoever did this to give empathy and reach out to me and tell me why. I just want to know why. I’m never going to get closure, because it doesn’t matter what happens out of the justice system. “I’m not going to get her walking through that door.”
Vikat Bhagat, 24, who was known to Danielle, has been charged with her murder and is in custody in Goa awaiting trial. Speaking to RTE’S Sean O’rourke show yesterday, Andrea revealed the final words she said to her daughter were: “Be careful please.”
She also told how she was in daily contact with Danielle right up until the day she died. Andrea said: “She was happy, really happy, she said she was with her friends that she met at the airport and she was safe.
“I wasn’t as worried about her going there, because she had been there [India] before and she had friends there.”
Danielle’s last message to her mum read: “It’s a colour festival today. It’s south Goa, just letting you know because it’s Holi and a crazy day in India.
“It’s safe though. I am not near the crowds, with a girl who I know from the flight.”
Andrea described her daughter as a beautiful, fun-loving woman.
She said: “Danielle was amazing. She was just a bright light because she was always dancing and chatting, she was loud when she was singing.
“She never really sat, she was sparkly and she’d so many friends.”
Danielle’s younger sister Joeleen added: “There’s just so much stuff you want to tell her, but you know you can’t.
She used to always say, I was her first best friend.
“You can’t understand how something so awful could happen to such an amazing person.
“The last conver- sation [we had] in person she was just leaving to go to India.
“She ran upstairs to give me a hug and tell me she loves me and we’ll talk soon and that’s the last words she ever said to me.”
Andrea added: “It’s like a piece of your heart being taken out.
“You’ve an arrow in your heart.
You’ve a constant pain there.
“I go to bed every night hoping Danielle will come to me in a dream just so I can see her.”
The family are now fundraising to cover the fees for a lawyer who is going to “ask questions on Danielle’s behalf ” during the trial.
She said: “The police and the legal system in India have been very good.
“I have been given the right to have legal representation in the courts in Goa.
“No matter what I will never let Danielle’s voice be silenced.”