- Wednesday, June 18, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
British and Irish diplomats on Thursday (6) met Pramod Sawant, chief minister of the western Indian state of Goa and expressed concern over the slow pace of the trial in the 2017 rape-and-murder case of British-Irish national Danielle McLaughlin.
McLaughlin (28) was allegedly raped and murdered at Canacona in the state in March the same year.
A local man was arrested in the case and the trial is currently ongoing at a court in Margao in the coastal state, which is also a major international destination in the So,uth Asian country.
British deputy high commissioner Alan Gemmell and Anita Kelly, consul general of Ireland, Western India, met Sawant in Goa and in a joint statement released after their meeting, the diplomats said it had been six years since Danielle’s murder.
“Ensuring a quick conclusion to the court case is a significant priority for the British and Irish governments as well as, of course, for Danielle’s family,” the statement read.
They had raised the case with the local authorities over the years and came to Goa together to express their concern about the pace of the trial and its impact on Danielle’s family, the duo said.
“We are grateful to Hon’ble Chief Minister Pramod Sawant for being receptive to our appeal,” they added.
Andrea Brannigan, Danielle’s mother, said in a statement: “My precious daughter Danielle’s life was unexpectedly taken from her in a brutally savage attack over six years ago in Goa.
“I continue to push for a conclusion to the court case, in the hope that I may then try and rebuild my and my family’s lives with the knowledge that I have done everything in my power that I could possibly do to get justice for Danielle,” she added.
(With PTI inputs)
