Fiona can depose via video conference in Scarlett case: CBI

PANAJI - The Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) is open to recording Fiona Mackeown’s testimony via video conference during the murder trial of her daughter Scarlett Keeling, who was sexual assaulted and left to die on a Goa beach in 2008, the agency’s counsel said Monday.

Speaking to reporters after the trial proceedings at the Goa Children’s Court (GCC), CBI counsel S. Rivonkar said that Fiona’s statement was extremely crucial to the trial.

“She (Fiona) has not been summoned yet, but she is a crucial witness. Fiona would be summoned for trial to depose before the court. If she can’t come, we can even arrange for a video conferencing facility in order to record her statement from where she is,” Rivonkar said.

Fiona, who led the campaign for a re-look at the police investigations into her daughter’s sexual assault and death, is presently in Devon, Britain.

Scarlett’s half-naked body was found at Anjuna beach of Goa in February 2008.

Two beach shack workers Samson D’Souza and Placido Carvalho are being tried for sexual assault and culpable homicide in connection with the case.

The police had earlier tried to dismiss the case as a case of drowning.

But her mother Fiona’s subsequent campaign for justice had attracted international spotlight and exposed Goa tourism’s ugly narcotics-laced underbelly.