By IANS,
Panaji : Goa’s Women and Child Development (WCD) department Wednesday postponed to Nov 5 the hearing of the case against British mother Fiona Mackeown, who faces charges of neglect against her dead teenaged daughter Scarlett Keeling.
The WCD had earlier threatened to proceed ex parte against Fiona if she faied to appear for the hearing scheduled for Wednesday. Fiona is presently in Britain.
The notices to Fiona followed a complaint by advocate Aires Rodrigues who had charged Fiona of neglecting her daughter under the Goa Children’s Act. Aires claimed that Fiona had left her minor daughter in the care of a stranger, while she herself was vacationing with friends in Gokarna, Karnataka.
After Fiona failed to attend preliminary hearings at the WCD, the director had then issued a show cause notice warning her of an ex parte decision if she failed to turn up again.
Fiona had earlier led a campaign against the state administration, claiming that her daughter had been allegedly murdered by the drug mafia operative in Goa. She had named the son of a top politician in the state as one of the accused.
Scarlett was found dead in controversial circumstances on Goa’s Anjuna beach in February this year.