11 years on, shack worker convicted in Scarlett case

Panaji: Partially overturning a 2016 trial court order, the Bombay high court in Goa on Wednesday convicted Samson D'Souza and acquitted Placido Carvalho - both shack workers in Anjuna Beach - in connection with the sexual assault and murder of 15-year-old British teenager Scarlett Keeling, who was found dead with bruises on her body on the north Goa beach in 2008.
The arguments on quantum of sentence would be heard on Friday, CBI counsel Ejaz Khan said. The CBI had challenged the acquittal of the two by the Goa Children's Court last year. The high court convicted D'Souza under IPC sections 328 (for administrating drugs), 354 (outraging woman's modesty), 304 (culpable homicide not amounting murder), and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and for child abuse under section 8(2) of the Goa Children's Act.
Vikram Varma, lawyer of Scarlett's mother Fiona Mackeown who was present during the hearing, said justice had been done especially with the court ordering the conviction of Samson, after finding him guilty on all listed counts.
"They took off her (Scarlett's) clothes, assaulted her sexually and killed her. That conduct brings them under the purview of the Goa Children's Act. This is based on the same evidence which has been gathered on trial over 10 years," Varma said, adding the court acquitted Carvalho because of lack of evidence."
MacKeown, 55, said she was “delighted” when she heard the news that D’Souza’s had been convicted in Goa on Wednesday for with her daughter’s death. “I am still reeling from the news a little bit. It does not seem real,” she said. She added she would try to be in India on Friday for the sentencing. “I am delighted with the news.”
(With inputs from Naomi Canton)