Murdered teen’s mother may meet British foreign minister
Indo-Asian News Service
London, June 14 (IANS) The mother of British teenager Scarlett Keeling, murdered in Goa in February, is hoping to meet the British foreign minister to press her case for justice as the family prepares to mark what would have been Scarlett’s 16th birthday.
Scarlett, from Bradworthy in the county of Devonshire in southwest England, was allegedly raped and murdered while on a family holiday in Goa in February. She would have celebrated her 16th birthday June 17, the local media reported.
Her mother, Fiona MacKeown, has enlisted the help of local MP Geoffrey Cox in her campaign to bring Scarlett’s killers to court and is hoping the lawmaker may be able to arrange a meeting with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband.
“If I don’t get criminal justice for Scarlett’s murder, if nothing else, I want to find a way of pressuring our government to warn people of the dangers out there as we have the power to make a difference,” she told the local North Devon Journal.
“I don’t know how quickly this case will be resolved, but I feel helpless now with just waiting,” she said.
MacKeown has also accused Indian authorities of delaying her visa, but Indian diplomats in London denied the claim.
“The application has been referred to New Delhi and we are awaiting instructions,” a spokeswoman for the Indian High Commission in London told IANS.
However, MacKeown said her lawyer in India has advised her not to return to Goa for the moment.
“I will have to go back to India at some point to make a statement to the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), but my lawyer is hesitant in advising me to go back at the moment as he is appealing to the high court for a fixed date for when the witness can leave the country.
“He is worried that if I go out there, I may not be able to come back and so he is being cautious,” she told the North Devon Journal.
MacKeown is currently creating a garden in the grounds of the family home where she plans to bury Scarlett once her body is released.
She also wants to collect remainders of Scarlett’s body parts removed by Indian forensic scientists so that she can reunite them with the body.
MacKeown alleges a nexus between politicians, police and drug barons in Goa in attempts to cover up her daughter’s murder and has forced the Goa government to hand over the investigation to the CBI.