Murdered Scarlett Keeling’s body had 50 injuries

The mother of murdered British schoolgirl Scarlett Keeling broke down in tears yesterday as she visited the beach in Goa where her daughter’s body was discovered.

Fiona MacKeown, who is giving evidence today at the trial of the alleged killers, spoke out bitterly to the Daily Mail after it emerged that her 15-year-old daughter suffered 50 separate injuries in the attack in 2008.

All but five of these were missed in the original post mortem.

Details of the extensive nature of Scarlett’s wounds, which covered large areas of her head and body, were found in a second post mortem and are listed in police files seen by the Mail.

It is the first time Mrs MacKeown has returned to Goa since she campaigned for the Indian authorities to open a murder inquiry.

She said: ‘The police treated me with no respect. They wanted to protect the apparent idyllic life in Goa and a murder inquiry would expose its seedy underbelly.

‘These files show how poorly the police and the original pathologist acted.

‘They show how much corruption goes on in the police. No professional should have missed all those injuries.

‘I could see many of them with my own eyes when I had to identify the body. It has made it much harder to get justice but I’m still hopeful.’

The second examination, only carried out after Mrs MacKeown, 46, spent weeks campaigning for the death to be reinvestigated, paints a vastly different picture from the first.

Then, Dr Silvano Sapeco recorded only five external injuries. In a brief summary, he concluded that Scarlett had drowned accidentally and failed to suggest she might have been held under water by her attackers.

Three doctors concluded that she was held underwater for ‘five to 10 minutes’ after being ‘rendered senseless and defenceless by alcohol or drugs’.

They also said she may have been raped. Scarlett, of Bideford, Devon, was staying with her 25-year-old Goan boyfriend while her mother travelled around India when she was killed.

Samson D’Souza, 30, and Placido Carvalho, 42, are on trial for her murder and rape.

The pair, who are both on bail, deny culpable homicide, sexual assault, outraging modesty and destroying evidence.