London: Fiona MacKeown, mother of British schoolgirl Scarlette Keeling, who was found dead on a beach in Goa, has admitted that she was imprisoned for a year as a teenager for stabbing her employer after he allegedly tried to force himself on her friend, local media reported on Saturday.
"It's something that happened, and I learnt a lot from it," 43-year-old MacKeown told The Times. "But it has no relevance to Scarlett's case," she said.
According to a report in the Daily Mail, the deaths of at least four Britons could be re-investigated by police in Goa after police admitted covering up the death of Scarlette. Quoting officers, the report said the police would reopen investigations into dozens of suspicious deaths passed off as accidents.
At least 126 foreign nationals, including 40 Britons, have died in Goa in the past two years, the report said.
Many were put down to natural causes or accidents — but some officers believe up to 12 deaths passed off as drowning since last year looked suspicious.
One case, which may be checked, is the suspicious drowning of Martin Neighbour, 39. His body was found on a beach last month. His fiancee believes he was murdered by locals who lost money in a card game.
The local police insist they are close to solving the case after arresting Placido Carvalho, a local drug dealer, and Samson D'Souza, a bartender, on suspicion of plying Scarlette with drugs, raping her and leaving her to drown.
Earlier, MacKeown's son 19-year-old Hal Keeling was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail that his mother was jailed for attempted manslaughter. MacKeown's son revealed that his mother was 18 when she and a friend were charged with attempted murder.
PAGE_BREAK
She served a year of a three-year sentence after the charge was reduced to attempted manslaughter following a trial in 1983.
According to the Times report, the police were under pressure on Friday to investigate whether a third Indian, Murli Sagar, who is believed to have links with Bollywood and to a powerful local politician, was also involved in the death of the teenager from Bideford Devon.
MacKeown and her lawyer believe Sagar may be the key to exposing the 'nexus' of local politicians, police and drug dealers whom they accuse of covering up the crime. Bosco George, the Goan Superintendent of Police, told the newspaper that police did not regard Sagar as a suspect.
But Vkram Varma, MacKeown's lawyer, told the newspaper that "Placido and Samson are just the foot soldiers. They don't have the kind of money to pay off the police."
Comments
0 comment