Team Herald
PANJIM: The British High Commission and Consul General of Ireland have expressed concern over the slow pace of murder trial against Vikat Bhagat, facing charges of killing 28-year-old Danielle McLaughlin in 2017.
Gerry Kelly, Consul General of Ireland and Alan Gemmell, British Deputy High Commissioner, Western India, met Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and senior officials on Thursday to express their concerns on the long-running case of Danielle McLaughlin who was brutally murdered in 2017.
“It has been five years since Danielle's murder in Goa in March 2017. Ensuring a quick conclusion to the court case is a significant priority for the British and Irish Governments as well as, of course, for Danielle's family. We came to Goa together to do all we could to raise the profile of this case and express our concern at the pace of the trial and its impact on Danielle’s family,” Kelly and Gemmell said in a joint statement issued to the media after the meeting.
The 28-year-old British-Irish national was on holiday when she was hit with a bottle before she was raped, murdered and had her face ‘smashed beyond recognition’ with a stone by Bhagat, who was charged with murder, rape, destruction of evidence and theft. He has been in custody since 2017 and the murder trial that began on April 6, 2018 at Additional Sessions Court in Margao.
The British government has been providing consular assistance to the family of McLaughlin, through its embassy in New Delhi, consulate general in Mumbai and Consular Assistance Unit in Dublin, since the incident was reported to the police. Earlier last month, deceased’s mother, Andrea Brannigan had made a statement that she was in the process of writing to the chief minister of Goa to request that the proceedings be hastened.
On Thursday, Danielle’s mother said in a statement that she will pursue the case in Goa. “My precious daughter Danielle’s life was unexpectedly taken from her in a brutally savage attack over five years ago in Goa. I continue to push for a conclusion to the court case, in the hope that I may then try and rebuild mine and my family’s lives with the knowledge that I have done everything in my power that I could possibly do to get justice for Danielle,” she said.
