Years after the rape and murder of an Irish backpacker Danielle McLaughlin on one of the beaches of Goa, the Indian court will have its biggest hearing on the case this week. After nearly 8 years of the sensational incident, the court in Goa is expected to deliver the final ruling in the coming week. The incident occurred in 2017 and shook the whole of India.
Andrea Brannings, mother of the then 28-year-old McLaughlin hopes that justice be delivered by the court. For her, the road to justice has been long because of several delays and adjournments in a never-ending trial. She hopes that this ruling will bring closure to this case. Ready to travel to Goa this week, Brannigan is fearful of facing the accused in the courtroom.
The 2017 Rape and Murder
McLoughlin was a 28-year-old dual British Irish citizen who moved to Goa with a friend for a holiday in February 2017. A resident of Buncranain County Donegal in Ireland and a former student of Liverpool John Moores University, McLaughlin travelled to India on a British passport.
A month after her coming to India, she attended a Holi party near Palolem Beach in South Goa Canacona in March 2017. The next day, McLaughlin’s body was found in a pool of blood with clothes and injuries on the head and face in a field near the beach.
The postmortem reports found that she had died due to brain haemorrhage and constriction of the neck. The report also said that she was raped before being murdered.
