Mother vows to continue organ fight

12 April 2012

The mother of a British teenager found raped and murdered on a beach in Goa has failed in her bid to retrieve her daughter's organs - saying she had been pushed "from pillar to post".

Fiona MacKeown said she would make another attempt on Friday to get back the organs, taken in an autopsy from her 15-year-old daughter Scarlett Keeling, found dead on Anjuna Beach in Goa in February.

"Perhaps I will get more joy tomorrow (Friday), when it is not a holiday," said 43-year-old Mrs McKeown, from North Devon, who is flying back to the UK on Sunday.

Mrs MacKeown had flown back to India from the UK expecting to be given by the Goa Medical College and Hospital the uterus, kidneys and stomach of Scarlett.

But she said: "The doctor does not want to hand over the organs, he is worried about the legal side."

She said she was told on Tuesday that she could have the organs, which she wants to be buried with Scarlett's body in the UK.

Mrs MacKeown said she would keep returning to Goa to pursue justice for her daughter.

Her pledge followed comments from a 40-year-old British freelance journalist who said her four-month battle for justice following her rape in Udaipur, India, was marked by "intimidation and harassment".

The journalist, whose attacker was jailed for 21 years, told The Times: "The community appeared to be prepared to go to any lengths. They just thought, 'You're white, you're a tourist, you'll be gone in two weeks,' " she said.

Mrs MacKeown has claimed that links between police officials, politicians and the drugs Mafia have hampered a proper investigation into her daughter's death.

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