14 February 2025 , 11:08
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A man has been found guilty of the rape and murder of Irish backpacker Danielle McLaughlin in 2017.
A local man, Vikat Bhagat, was found guilty at the District and Sessions Court in south Goa on Friday.
Ms McLaughlin’s naked body was found by a farmer in March 2017 in a secluded spot in Deobagh in south Goa, an area popular with holidaymakers.
The 28-year-old County Donegal woman had been raped and strangled, a post-mortem examination found.
In a statement, Ms McLaughlin’s mother and a sister said justice had "finally been achieved".
"There was no other suspect or gang involved in Danielle’s death and (Vikat) Bhagat was solely responsible for cruelly ending her beautiful life," they said.
"We have endured what has been effectively an eight-year murder trial with many delays and problems, right until the end, all taking place thousands of miles away from Danielle’s home.
"We are content now with the judicial confirmation in public of what we already sadly knew. What further legal processes now take place we will observe."
She had travelled to the southern Indian state with a female Australian friend, and the pair were staying in a beach hut.
They had been celebrating Holi - a Hindu spring festival - at a nearby village.
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