Danielle Mclaughlin: Man jailed for all times over rape and homicide of British-Irish backpacker in India | EUROtoday

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A 31-year-old man has been jailed for all times over the rape and homicide of a 28-year-old Irish vacationer in Goa, India.

Danielle McLaughlin’s physique was discovered with extreme accidents in a forested space close to Palolem seaside in Canacona village in March 2017.

The trial court docket had on Friday discovered Vikat Bhagat responsible of raping and murdering the 28-year-old backpacker.

The verdict got here after practically eight years of authorized proceedings, with the sufferer’s household’s lawyer saying that the sentence introduced justice.

“It was a difficult task for the prosecution to put together all the circumstantial evidence to convince the court beyond reasonable doubt about this conviction,” Vikram Verma stated.

McLaughlin’s mom Andrea Brannigan had travelled to Goa for the decision. She instructed reporters she was “glad and relieved” that the sentencing was over.

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India tightened legal guidelines on rape and arrange fast-track particular courts after the brutal 2012 gang-rape of a younger girl on a Delhi bus, a case that shocked the nation.

At the decision listening to on Friday, Ms Brannigan issued a press release which learn: “I lost my eldest daughter, she was stolen from us, she was stolen from her sisters and friends.

“She was also stolen the opportunity of becoming a mother herself.

“There was a lot stolen from us and from her.”

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Mr Verma stated that Bhagat acquired life imprisonment beneath Section 302 (homicide) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 376 (rape), together with a Rs 25,000 (£250) advantageous.

Bhagat was additionally convicted for destruction of proof, carrying a two-year sentence and an INR 10,000 (£100) advantageous, although all sentences will run concurrently.

According to prosecutors, Bhagat exploited his friendship with the sufferer to lure her to an open, remoted discipline, the place he sexually assaulted her on the intervening evening of 13 and 14 March 2017.

He then struck her head and face with a glass bottle earlier than strangling her. A autopsy examination later decided that the reason for dying was mind injury and strangulation.

McLaughlin’s sister, Joleen McLaughlin Brannigan, additionally was in India for the decision and sentencing.

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“We have lost nearly eight years of our lives fighting for Danielle,” she stated after the decision.

“We are so thankful that we can now start grieving her immeasurable loss.

“She made the most of her 28 years, and lived every day to the fullest.

“She was so kind, and always so happy – she didn’t deserve what he put her through.

“We are so grateful to be able to be here for the verdict and see Goa that Danielle loved so much.”

Under Indian legislation, rape victims are sometimes not named to guard them from social stigma which is prevalent in India. However, on this case, McLaughlin’s household has chosen to talk to the media to boost consciousness about her case.

McLaughlin, from Buncrana, travelled to India in February 2017, the place she stayed for 2 weeks earlier than being murdered.

The Liverpool John Moores University scholar had been sharing a seaside hut with an Australian pal, and the 2 had been celebrating the competition of Holi in a close-by village. She left the village at evening, and her physique was found the next day by a neighborhood farmer in a distant space.